RV  4010  .H9 

Hut  chins,  William  James, 

If  Treacher's    ideals   and 


The    preac 


The  Preacher's  Ideals 
and  Inspirations 


Lectures  on  the  George  Shepard  Foundation 
Bangor  Convocation,  jgi6 


The  Preacher's  Ideals 
and  Inspirations 


By 

WILLIAM  J.  HUTCHINS 

Professor  of  Homiletics  in  the  Oberlin  Graduate 
School  of  Theology 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1917.  ^y 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York;  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London :  2 1  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


To 
Mr  FATHER 


Foreword 

THE  addresses  which  make  up  this 
book  were  prepared  not  for  the  ex- 
traordinary preacher,  but  for  the 
average  man  who  in  a  small  parish  in  the 
face  of  grave  difficulties  tries  to  continue  true 
to  the  dreams  of  his  youth,  to  the  teachings 
of  his  seminary  days,  and  to  the  demands  of 
the  living  present. 

The  lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln  was  given 
to  an  evening  audience  in  which  laymen  pre- 
dominated. 

The  colloquial  style  of  spoken  address  has 
been  retained  in  the  hope  that  it  may  bring 
to  the  reader  a  little  of  the  atmosphere  of 
frank  comradeship  which  pervaded  all  the 
gatherings  of  the  Convocation. 

I  cannot  fittingly  express  my  gratitude  to 
the  President  and  Faculty  of  Bangor  Semi- 
nary, and  to  the  friends  made  at  the  Convo- 
cation, whose  friendship  is  a  permanent  asset 
of  my  life. 

W.  J.  H. 

Oberliftf  Ohio* 


Contents 

I.   The  Preacher  and  His  Times    .  1 1 

IL   The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon   .  47 

ni.  The  Preacher  and  His  Bible  .    .  87 

IV.  Abraham  Lincoln  :  The  Preacher's 

Teacher 121 

V.  The  Preacher  and  His  Master       .  155 


I 

The  Preacher  and  His  Times 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  TIMES 

AS  a  man  looks  through  a  preacher's 
eyes  at  the  Hfe  of  our  times,  there 
seems  at  first  much  to  dishearten 
him.  We  turn  back  with  envy  to  the  great 
days  of  the  Puritans,  when  men  actually  went 
to  church.  Old  Judge  Sewall  writes  in  his 
diary,  "  Extraordinary  cold  storm  of  wind 
and  rain  ;  blows  much  more  as  coming  home, 
and  holds  on,"  or  again,  "  Bread  was  frozen 
at  the  Lord's  table,  yet  was  very  comfortable 
at  meeting."  If  we  could  only  have  been 
preachers  then  I  We  read  long  articles 
about  the  workingman's  indifference  or  hos- 
tility to  the  Church.  Edward  Lewis,  himself 
a  minister  and  formerly  a  pastor,  writes  of 
the  Church  as  a  diminishing  and  decaying 
institution  from  which  power  and  authority 
in  the  world  are  swiftly  passing.  We  are 
contiimally  reminded  that  the  Church  is  ec- 
clesiastical bric-^-brac.  The  query  is  raised, 
Has  the  Church  collapsed  ?  Are  we  to  have 
a  constituency  for  Christianity  ? 

In  a  preachers'  magazine  I  read  of  the 

13 


14  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

Rout  of  the  Theological  Seminaries,  and  the 
imagination  conjured  up  the  spectacle  of 
faculties,  theologues  and  buildings,  all  swiftly 
decomposing  into  a  heterogeneous  mass  to 
form  some  lateral  moraine  along  the  margin 
of  the  glacial  stream  of  history.  At  last  a 
man  who  has  honestly  identified  his  life  with 
the  life  of  the  Church  and  the  ministry  re- 
minds himself  of  the  old  soldier  beggar,  who 
bore  upon  his  breast  this  legend :  "  Have 
pity  on  me,  been  in  five  battles,  wounded 
twice,  children  four,  total  eleven."  But  just 
as  we  have  voted,  unanimously,  that  the 
Church  and  especially  the  ministers  and  pre- 
eminently the  seminaries  have  descended  to 
Avernus,  there  appear  above  the  horizon 
certain  facts,  which  force  us  to  move  a  re- 
consideration of  our  question.  I  might  re- 
mind you  of  certain  facts  of  history  ;  for 
example  in  1803,  so  great  and  good  a  man 
as  the  first  President  Dwight  of  Yale  de- 
clared, "  We  have  a  country  governed  by 
blockheads  and  knaves.  Who  can  paint 
anything  more  dreadful  this  side  of  hell  ?  " 
It  was  at  this  very  time  that  the  lower  courses 
of  the  fair  structure  of  our  Republic  were 
being  laid.  Writing  in  185 1,  Amiel  said, 
"  The  age  of  great  men  is  going,  the  epoch 
of  the  ant-hill  is  beginning.  The  statistician 
will   register   a   growing  progress,  and   the 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         15 

moralist  a  gradual  decline."  Yet  this  epoch 
of  the  ant-hill  was  the  epoch  of  Webster  and 
of  Lincoln,  of  the  men  who  were  to  create 
America's  golden  age.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  recorded  history  there  have  been 
great  and  good  men  who  have  sat  raven-like 
upon  the  pallid  bust  of  the  mighty  past,  and 
muttered  their  **  Nevermore."  Macaulay, 
you  remember,  said,  **  All  my  days  I  have 
seen  nothing  but  progress  and  heard  of  noth- 
ing but  decay." 

But  I  prefer  to  speak  to  you  of  certain 
facts  of  the  present.  And  the  first  fact,  a 
most  hopeful  fact,  is  the  current  discontent  in 
the  industrial  and  in  the  religious  world, 
technically  so  called.  In  the  industrial  world 
the  discontent  reveals  itself  indeed  in  strikes, 
lockouts,  murders.  In  the  **  religious  "  world 
the  discontent  is  less  conspicuous  ;  it  is  none 
the  less  real.  While  educated  Japan  throws 
away  her  idols  for  the  worship  of  the  emperor 
or  the  worship  of  nothing;  while  China 
throws  her  gods  into  the  river  ;  while  India 
is  being  stirred  to  scepticism  of  the  ancient 
systems  ;  with  us  religious  discontent  reveals 
itself  in  the  ceaseless  search  for  some  new 
thing,  or  in  the  total  disregard  of  all  organ- 
ized religion. 

Now  the  encouraging  feature  of  the  cur- 
rent discontent  is  this :  Almost  invariably  it 


i6  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

is  discontent  with  the  unchristlike  aspects  of 
our  life  and  thought.  I  know  that  there  are 
Pharisees  intent  upon  maintaining  the  present 
status  who  will  deny  this.  I  know  too  that 
there  are  men  intent  upon  winning  pleasure, 
leisure,  treasure,  who  would  seem  to  disprove 
the  asserdon,  but  speaking  broadly  we  are 
convinced  the  statement  is  true.  Men  refuse 
to  rest  content,  as  they  look  upon  New  York 
**  reeling  crazy  drunk  with  money,"  and  look 
upon  New  Yorkers  staggering  with  starva- 
tion. They  rise  in  wrath  against  a  Christian 
civilization  which  in  a  single  year  kills  nearly 
three  thousand  of  those  who  in  the  darkness 
of  the  earth  bring  to  the  earth's  surface 
Emerson's  "  portable  climate,"  a  civilization 
which  in  a  recent  year  killed  or  injured  nearly 
200,000  people  on  its  steam  and  electric  rail- 
ways, a  civilization  of  bread  lines  and  limou- 
sines. They  scorn  a  commerce  which  as  an 
author  says,  "  holds  in  one  hand  the  slum 
and  in  the  other  the  mission  field  ;  "  a  com- 
merce which  might  still  lead  a  candid  observer 
to  approve  the  course  of  the  Indian  chief  of 
Cuba,  who,  I  read,  ordered  his  people  to  wor- 
ship a  lump  of  gold  to  conciliate  the  white 
man's  God.  Men  will  not  believe  that  a 
Church  rent  by  discord  can  fitly  represent  the 
body  of  Christ.  The  prevalent  discontent  is 
discontent  with  those  aspects  of  our  thought 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times  17 

and  life  which  are  out  of  harmony  with  the 
life  and  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  who 
is  He  ?  He  is  the  sole  Lord  and  Leader  of 
the  Christian  preacher. 

Another  most  encouraging  feature  of  the 
life  of  our  times  is  the  failure  of  panaceas. 
Industrial  and  political  panaceas  have  been 
as  numerous  as  the  demons  who  once  in- 
habited the  swine  of  Gadara,  and  who,  you 
recall,  drove  their  possessors  into  the  sea. 
In  those  regions  in  which  the  panaceas  have 
been  tried  most  faithfully,  they  have  been 
found  at  best  to  alleviate,  never  to  eradicate 
the  real  evils  of  the  world's  life.  I  remind 
you  of  Australia,  where  until  the  Great  War 
set  men  upon  nobler  issues,  money  love  and 
pleasure  love  threatened  to  strangle  the  life 
out  of  men.  **  In  America,"  says  Jefferson, 
"  we  have  suffered  a  heart-breaking  disillu- 
sionment. We  expected  great  things  of 
liberty  and  education,  and  have  found  them 
broken  reeds.  Neither  our  wealth  nor  our 
science  has  given  us  peace  or  joy.  The  four 
wizards,  liberty  and  education  and  wealth 
and  science,  have  performed  their  mightiest 
miracles  under  our  flag,  but  they  cannot  do 
the  one  thing  essential,  they  cannot  keep  the 
conscience  quick  or  the  soul  alive  to  God." 
We  can  now  send  the  recognizable  human 
voice  over  4,600  miles  of  land  and  sea,  but 


i8  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

what  if  that  voice  shall  but  echo  the  death 
cries  of  Poland  or  Armenia  ? 

Nor  has  the  *'  religious  "  world  been  with- 
out her  panaceas.  Ever  and  again  some 
Aaron  erects  his  altar  and  upon  it  places  his 
particular  pet  calf,  and  cries  to  our  wander- 
ing Israel,  "  This  is  thy  god  which  shall  lead 
thee  up  out  of  Egypt ! "  But  notwithstand- 
ing seeming  temporary  success,  every  one  of 
these  panaceas  fails,  because  it  fails  to  deal 
radically  with  the  radical  problem  of  all  re- 
ligion. And  that  is  what  ?  Sin.  I  have  un- 
derstood that  Dr.  Shedd's  theology  is  some- 
what out  of  date.  He  says  at  least  one  true 
word :  "A  profound  consciousness  of  sin  in 
the  heart,  and  a  correspondingly  profound 
theory  of  sin  in  the  head  are  fundamental  to 
any  soundness  of  view  in  the  general  domain 
of  theology."  And  a  religious  panacea 
which  knows  no  consciousness  of  sin  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  and  offers  for  the  heads  of 
men  no  theory  of  sin,  but  sin's  denial,  has  no 
healing  for  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of  my 
people. 

Now  what  is  the  meaning  of  this  universal 
discontent,  so  deep  seated,  so  pathetic? 
What  is  the  meaning  of  this  failure  of  pana- 
ceas ?  You  have  seen  a  little  lost  child 
brought  into  a  police  station.  The  big 
friendly  officers  do  their  best  to  still  his  sob- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         19 

bings ;  they  cannot  do  it.  Kindly  neighbour 
women  come,  try  to  still  his  sobbings,  but 
they  cannot  do  it.  At  last  a  woman  rushes 
in,  clasps  the  child  to  her  arms,  and  the  baby 
is  at  rest.  Perhaps  he  cannot  tell  why.  The 
reason  is  that  he  has  found  his  mother. 
Blind,  unconsoled,  humanity  seeks  for  a 
Saviour,  and  unless  this  world  of  ours  is  a 
mad-house,  humanity  shall  find  the  Saviour 
and  in  His  arms  be  at  rest ;  but  not  yet  has 
any  man  discovered  a  name  under  heaven 
given  among  men,  by  which  humanity  can 
be  saved,  other  than  the  name  of  Him  who 
is  the  sole  Lord  and  Leader  of  the  Christian 
preacher. 

Further,  as  we  study  the  life  of  our  times, 
we  are  impressed  by  a  wonderful  new  aspir- 
ation, the  aspiration  after  brotherhood.  That 
seems  to  me  a  significant  story,  which  Mott 
tells.  A  Scotch  soldier  was  brought  into  the 
hospital.  He  was  holding  fiercely  in  his  hand 
a  German  helmet  and  would  not  let  it  go. 
**  Did  you  kill  him  ?"  said  the  nurse.  **  No, 
he  was  my  friend ; "  and  then  the  boy  told 
how,  when  he  was  wounded  so  that  he  could 
not  help  himself,  he  chanced  to  see  a  Ger- 
man soldier,  wounded  so  that  he  could  not 
help  himself.  Each  crawled  slowly  towards 
the  other,  each  staunched  the  other's  wounds, 


20  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

each  saved  the  other's  life ;  and  when  they 
were  carried  to  their  separate  hospitals,  the 
Scotch  boy  gave  the  German  his  cap  and  the 
German  gave  the  Scotch  lad  his  helmet,  for 
that  day  on  that  field  of  death  they  knew 
that  they  were  brothers.  The  man  who 
wrote  the  **  Chant  of  Hate  "  would  to-day,  I 
suspect,  willingly  suppress  it.  You  read  the 
word  of  a  military  officer  after  the  first 
Christmas  of  the  war :  "  Another  such  day, 
and  our  troops  will  quit  and  go  home."  If 
you  give  them  but  the  chance  to  know  each 
other,  you  cannot  make  men,  manly  men, 
persistently  hate  each  other. 

In  labour  circles,  men  are  achieving  a  very 
real  if  a  very  partial  brotherhood.  Surely 
the  class-conscious  struggle  is  a  passing 
phase.  Until  with  the  beginning  of  "  the 
great  mad  war,"  professors  lost  all  sense  of 
humour,  and  began  sending  back  home  their 
degrees  and  decorations,  we  had  grown  fa- 
miliar with  the  fine  brotherhood  of  nien  of 
letters.  All  truth,  wherever  learned,  used 
to  be,  and  will  once  more  become,  '*  the 
property  of  men  of  thought  throughout 
the  world."  Pan-Americanism  is  a  proph- 
ecy ;  internationalism  is  a  hope.  There 
are  millions  of  men  who  are  daring  to  cry, 
**  Above  all  nations,  humanity."  Ecclesias- 
tical  federation   is   in  the  air.     The  World 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         2 1 

Conference  of  Faith  and  Order  may  summon 
us  to  something  closer  than  federation.  Our 
Canadian  brothers,  our  missionaries  in  China, 
India  and  Japan,  are  shaming  our  sects  at 
home  into  some  semblance  of  unity. 

As  you  go  up  and  down  the  country,  are 
you  not  continually  delighted  and  humbled 
as  you  think  upon  the  number  of  **  good  peo- 
ple," as  we  call  them,  men  whom  you  meet 
unexpectedly,  to  find  that  they  are  brotherly 
men,  caring  for  the  things  you  care  for,  lov- 
ing the  things  you  love  ?  As  you  meet  some 
crisis  of  your  life  you  are  amazed  at  the  num- 
ber of  people  who  quietly,  unostentatiously 
but  aggressively,  do  the  loving  brotherly 
thing. 

I  think  of  that  story  of  the  Civil  War.  The 
Confederates  were  storming  some  Union  for- 
tifications. In  the  ascent  of  the  hill,  they 
reached  a  gully,  from  which  they  could  not 
move.  The  wounded  were  dying  of  thirst. 
A  lad  of  eighteen  gathered  all  the  empty 
canteens  he  could  carry  and  slipped  like 
a  snake  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  and  filled 
the  canteens  at  the  brook.  He  must  hurry 
back  in  full  sight  of  the  men  on  the  fortifica- 
tions. The  Union  soldiers  saw  him,  but  they 
saw  also  his  purpose,  and  there  burst  from 
the  ramparts  a  volley,  not  of  rifle  shots,  but 
of  cheers  for  the  man  who  would  die  for  his 


22  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

brothers.  Never  has  there  been  a  time  when 
brotherhood  was  so  dear  to  men,  and  men 
there  are  whom  we  count  enemies  of  the 
brotherly  life,  who  in  their  hearts  applaud, 
approve,  and  long  to  be  like  the  man  who 
pays  the  price  of  brotherhood. 

Already  the  aspiration  after  brotherhood 
has  become  a  majestic  movement.  Put  your 
ear  to  the  ground  and  you  hear  its  watch- 
words. In  the  world  of  business,  you  hear 
two  strange  old-fashioned  words,  Honesty, 
Service,  words  actually  made  a  slogan  by  the 
advertising  men  of  America,  except,  one 
would  judge,  by  the  advertisers  of  cigarettes 
and  of  whiskey.  In  the  world  of  inter- 
national politics,  above  the  noise  of  battle 
you  hear  clear  and  distinct  the  watchword. 
Peace.  In  the  world  of  ecclesiastics  you  hear 
louder  than  the  echoes  of  the  Kikuyu  con- 
troversy, the  watchword,  Unity.  In  the 
world  of  social  life,  you  hear  just  one  watch- 
word. Social  Salvation,  the  Redemption  of 
Society.  One  man  seeks  to  foster  rural  re- 
construction, another  the  social  hygiene  of 
the  city,  another  calls  us  to  a  crusade  of 
brotherhood  on  behalf  of  the  negro.  ,  A  while 
ago  a  modest  man,  graduate  of  Western  Re- 
serve University,  began  to  think  about  the 
immigrants  streaming  into  the  city  of  his 
alma  mater.     He  took  a  camera  and  caught 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         23 

upon  his  films  the  evidences  of  the  chicanery 
and  brutality  of  cabmen  towards  the  immi- 
grants coming  into  the  city,  and  that  obscure 
man  soon  found  the  courts  of  law,  the  public 
institutions,  the  municipal  offices  of  Cleve- 
land, not  obstacles  to,  but  vehicles  of  social 
redemption. 

Consider  the  times  in  which  we  live,  times 
which  furnish  an  atmosphere  for  the  carrying 
of  such  watchwords  as  these.  Suppose  that 
in  the  time  of  Frederick  the  Great  a  man 
had  uttered  such  words ;  he  would  have 
spoken  in  a  vacuum,  there  would  have  been 
no  atmosphere  to  carry  them.  Yet  each  one 
of  these  watchwords,  Honesty,  Service,  Peace, 
Unity,  Social  Salvation,  is  one  word  of  the 
evangel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  sole  Lord  and 
Leader  of  the  Christian  preacher. 

Along  with  this  new  aspiration  we  observe 
as  an  encouraging  fact  of  our  times  a  new 
emphasis,  the  emphasis  upon  personality. 
We  are  coming  to  discount  creeds,  institu- 
tions, constitutions  as  such.  We  are  coming 
to  recognize  the  imperious  need  of  the  man, 
the  man  who  can  **  lift  'em,  lift  'em,  lift  'em, 
through  the  charge  that  wins  the  day."  In 
America  we  have  been  obsessed  by  the  idea 
of  salvation  by  legislation  ;  but  the  obsession 
passes.     The  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fif- 


24  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

teenth  amendments  to  the  Constitution  leave 
the  Negro  a  slave  except  in  name.  Up  from 
slavery  he  must  be  led  by  men,  by  Arm- 
strong and  Booker  Washington  and  their 
comrades.  Before  1902  we  had  laws  enough 
to  make  all  business  honest,  but  a  man  was 
needed  to  organize  the  ethical  revolution,  in 
the  midst  of  which  we  are  still  fighting. 
Again  and  again  that  word  of  wide  applica- 
tion comes  back  to  a  man,  "  What  the  Law 
could  not  do."  We  are  forced  to  appreciate 
anew  the  word  of  Isaiah :  '*  A  man,"  not  a 
creed,  "  a  man,"  not  an  institution,  **  a  man," 
not  a  constitution,  **  a  man  shall  be  as  a  hid- 
ing place  from  the  wind  and  a  covert  from 
the  tempest,  as  streams  of  water  in  a  dry  place, 
as  the  shade  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary 
land."  Now  what  is  the  meaning  of  this 
new  emphasis  upon  personality  ?  Any  com- 
plete reliance  on  any  human  being  brings 
into  fatal  publicity  the  pathetic  weakness  of 
the  man.  I  suppose  that  Asquith,  Balfour, 
and  Lloyd  George  are  the  strongest  men  in 
England.  They  seem  like  swimmers  strug- 
gling against  the  currents  of  Hell  Gate.  I 
suppose  that  the  Kaiser  is  the  strongest  man 
on  the  continent.  How  puny  is  the  power 
of  a  man  who  even  if  victorious  must  bleed 
his  country  white.  As  the  world  grows 
thoughtful,  is  not  the  world  getting  ready  to 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         25 

trust  the  personality  of  the  Man  who  once 
walked  in  GaUlee,  whose  touch  hath  still  its 
ancient  power,  "  man's  best  Man,  love's  best 
Love,  the  perfect  life  in  perfect  labour  writ, 
all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King  or  Priest," 
even  Jesus  Christ,  the  sole  Lord  and  Leader 
of  the  Christian  preacher? 

"  In  his  life,  the  Law  appears 
Drawn  out  in  living  characters." 

Again  we  are  impressed  by  certain  new 
appreciations.  There  is  in  our  times  a  new 
appreciation  of  religion.  One  is  perfectly 
safe  in  talking  of  religion  with  any  man  one 
meets  upon  the  street.  You  recall  that  word 
of  a  friend  to  Justice  Holmes  of  the  Supreme 
Court :  **  There  is  only  one  interesting  thing 
in  the  world,  and  that  is  religion."  Men  are 
finding  that  out.  When  we  are  all  through 
talking  about  baseball  and  football  and 
preparedness  and  the  war  itself,  the  one  per- 
manently, fundamentally  interesting  thing  in 
the  world  is  religion.  The  crowds  will  throng 
a  park,  mechanics  will  pack  a  shop  meeting, 
taking  time  from  their  lunch-hour  to  hear  a 
man  of  God  as  he  gives  his  word  from  God. 
Revivalists  are  heard  with  all  the  old  time 
relish  even  when  they  speak  in  coarse,  crude 
language  of  God  and  sin,  and  death  and  life 
eternal.     If  Billy  Sunday  were  speaking  upon 


26  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

any  other  theme  in  the  world,  could  he  begin 
to  draw  the  crowds  which  flock  to  hear 
him? 

Slowly,  too,  men  are  coming  to  appreciate 
not  alone  the  supreme  interest  of  religion, 
but  its  supreme  importance.  Amos  prophe- 
sies a  great  famine  in  the  land,  not  a  famine 
of  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water  but  of  hearing 
the  words  of  Jehovah.  Well,  the  famine  has 
come  to  many  men.  To  any  well  fed  and 
healthy  soul,  there  are  essential  reason  and 
hope  and  love  and  the  choice  of  the  highest. 
No  word  from  God  I  The  reason  asks  the 
question  Why?  Why  am  I  here?  What's 
the  meaning  of  Hfe  ?  What's  the  meaning  of 
growth?  What's  the  meaning  of  the  per- 
sistent upward  look  of  men?  What's  the 
secret  of  the  great  personalities  who  have  led 
and  liberated  the  generations  ?  No  word 
from  God  I     The  reason  starves. 

As  the  reason  considers  the  great  person- 
alities of  the  world,  love  reaches  out  to  em- 
brace them.  Love  unless  perverted  seeks  the 
loveliest.  But  these  loveliest  take  us  by  the 
hand  and  lead  us  up  to — God?  But  now 
there  is  no  word  from  God,  and  love  is 
stunned  and  starved. 

To  a  healthy  soul,  there  are  essential  great 
hopes.  When  we  are  at  our  best  we  dare  to 
hope  that  no  paradise  stands  barred  to  entry. 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         27 

We  dare  even  to  hope  for  personal  immortal- 
ity for  ourselves  and  those  we  call  our  friends. 
Van  Dyke,  standing  by  the  grave  of  his 
friend  Stedman,  says  : 

<<  You  followed  through  the  quest  of  life, 
The  light  that  shines  above 
The  tumult  and  the  toil  of  men, 
And  shows  us  what  to  love. 

*<  Right  loyal  to  the  best  you  knew. 
Reality  or  dream, 
You  ran  the  race,  you  fought  the  fight, 
A  follower  of  the  Gleam. 

.'*  We  lay  upon  your  folded  hands 
The  wreath  of  asphodel ; 
We  speak  above  your  peaceful  face 
The  tender  word  Farewell ! 

**  For  well  you  fare,  in  God's  good  care, 
Somewhere  within  the  blue. 
And  know,  to-day,  your  dearest  dreams 
Are  true, — and  true, — and  true  !  " 

But  now  there  is  no  word  from  God.  So  far 
as  we  know,  our  dearest  dreams  are  false  and 
false  and  false. 

When  we  are  at  our  best  we  dare  to  hope 
for  the  ideal  civilization.  Indeed  we  think 
we  see  it  coming.  Out  of  the  chaotic  kalei- 
doscopic elements  of  the  present  we  believe 
that  we  can  see  arising  a  cosmos,  a  fair  and 
ordered  and  beautiful  thing.  But  now  there 
is  no  word  from  God.  The  hopes  that  make 
us  men  begin  to  wither  in  our  hearts. 


28  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

And  as  we  hope,  we  choose.  There  have 
been  those  who  supposed  that  if  there  were 
no  word  from  God  men  could  be  persuaded 
still  to  choose  the  good  and  eschew  the  evil. 
It  is  very  far  from  certain.  We  have  often 
marked  the  word  of  the  Japanese  Minister  of 
Home  Afiairs  to  the  representatives  of  the 
three  great  religions  of  Japan,  Buddhism, 
Shintoism  and  Christianity :  **  Teach  well 
your  religions."  Why?  Scandals,  suicides, 
social  deterioration  have  made  it  clear  to  the 
elder  statesmen  of  Japan  that  an  ethics  un- 
supported by  religion  is  a  house  built  on  the 
sand. 

*' Drink,  for  you  know  not  whence  you  came  nor  why. 
Drink,  for  you  know  not  why  you  go,  nor  where." 

Jane  Addams  has  publicly  declared  that  were 
she  to  enter  again  upon  her  gracious  work, 
she  would  use  more  largely,  more  positively, 
the  redemptive  forces  of  religion. 

With  this  new  appreciation  of  religion,  its 
interest  and  importance,  there  is  a  new  and 
profound  appreciation  of  Jesus,  not  neces- 
sarily of  the  Christ  of  our  orthodox  faith,  but 
a  new  appreciation  of  Jesus,  His  teachings. 
His  character,  His  regal  authority  in  the 
realm  of  spirit. 

We  have  not  forgotten  the  blackguard 
speech    of    the    representative  of  the  anti- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times        29 

Christian  Socialist  League  of  England : 
**  Many  of  the  parsons  or  modern  medicine 
men,  flunkies  of  the  supernatural,  have  been 
seriously  troubled  by  the  people  falling  away 
from  Christism.  Politics  have  been  attract- 
ing the  working  people  more  and  more,  re- 
ligion less  and  less.  For  this  reason  the 
reverend  hypocrites  have  suddenly  discovered 
that  Jesus  was  a  socialist.  Christ's  teaching 
is  antagonistic  to  all  sound  morality  and 
sound  progress.  Human  freedom  and  hap- 
piness can  only  be  obtained  by  repudiating 
Christism  of  all  kinds  and  all  its  works." 
But  this  utterance  is  so  exceptional  as  to  be 
almost  unique.  It  has  been  well  said,  "  His 
name  is  great  among  the  Gentiles."  Labour 
agitators,  communists,  socialists  all  do  Him 
reverence.  The  Jew  scarcely  finds  words  to 
express  his  devotion  to  the  man  Jesus. 
Rabbi  Kohler,  in  opening  a  Jewish  Congress 
in  1893,  exclaimed,  **  Jesus  the  keeper  of  the 
poor,  the  friend  of  the  sinner,  the  brother  of 
the  sufferer,  the  comfort  of  the  sorrow  laden, 
the  healer  of  the  sick,  the  uplifter  of  the 
fallen,  the  lover  of  men,  the  redeemer  of 
women,  we  [we  Jews]  claim  him  as  our 
own."  You  have  noticed  the  sinister  sug- 
gestion that  during  the  war  a  moratorium  on 
Christianity  be  proclaimed.  You  read  the 
question  presented  in  Parliament :  "  As  there 


30  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

is  nothing  doing  in  Christianity  at  present, 
isn't  it  important  that  clergymen  should 
enlist?"  But  do  not  words  like  these  simply 
throw  into  clearer  relief  the  conviction  of 
men  that  as  the  present  collapse  of  civiliza- 
tion is  the  fruit  of  unchristlike  international 
relations,  so  the  proper  organization  of  po- 
litical and  social  life  involves  the  enthrone- 
ment of  the  principles  and  purposes  of  Jesus  ? 

What  does  the  new  appreciation  of  re- 
ligion, the  new  appreciation  of  Jesus  mean  ? 
Surely  this,  a  growing  acceptance  of  Jesus, 
until  He  shall  be  crowned  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords.  But  Jesus  Christ,  I  repeat,  is 
the  sole  Lord  and  Leader  of  the  Christian 
preacher. 

The  times  clamour  for  those  "  durable  satis- 
factions "  which  our  Lord  and  Leader  alone 
can  bring  to  men. 

As  the  preacher  estimates  his  times,  he  is 
compelled  to  ask  how  the  times  estimate 
him.  Am  I  as  preacher  equipped  to  mediate 
to  the  times  the  durable  satisfactions  for 
which  they  cry  ? 

It  is  argued  that  the  magazine,  the  news- 
paper, the  moving  picture  show,  the  book, 
have  supplanted  the  preacher  in  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  people.  We  may  take  comfort 
from  the  remark  reported  of  the  late  H.  R. 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         31 

Haweis,  to  the  effect  that  **  in  the  persistence 
of  preaching  is  a  conspicuous  example  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest.  If  preaching  could 
have  been  killed,  it  would  have  been  killed 
long  ago  by  the  thousands  of  imbecile 
sermons  that  have  been  poured  from  count- 
less pulpits  throughout  the  ages  of  the 
Church."  A  keen  observer  has  said  that  in 
no  country  whatever  is  a  genius  for  public 
speaking  a  more  useful  and  commanding 
endowment  than  in  America.  Men  do  not 
like  to  listen  to  dullards,  but  men  still  delight 
to  listen  to  the  man  who  utters  truth  through 
personality.  A  Congregational  minister  in 
the  middle  west  has  as  good  a  moving  picture 
apparatus  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  state.  He 
tells  me  that  in  the  long  run  the  preacher  can 
beat  the  pictures.  As  contrasted  with  the 
speaking  man  how  ineffective  is  the  written 
page.  Professor  Palmer  said  to  his  wife, 
Alice  Freeman  Palmer :  "  When  you  are 
gone,  people  will  ask  who  you  were,  and 
nobody  will  be  able  to  say."  **  Why  should 
they  say?  I  am  trying  to  make  girls  wiser 
and  happier.  Books  don't  help  much  towards 
that.  They  are  entertaining  enough,  but 
really  dead  things.  Why  should  I  make 
more  of  them  ?  It  is  people  that  count. 
You  want  to  put  yourself  into  people  ;  they 
touch  other  people,  these  others  still,  and  so 


32  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

you  go  on  working  forever."     "  This  speak- 
ing one — there  is  need  of  him  yet." 

It  is  argued  that  the  prejudice  against 
the  Church  precludes  the  wide  hearing  of 
the  preacher's  message.  There  is  prejudice 
against  the  Church,  but  one  notes  with  in- 
terest that  Montana  chambers  of  commerce 
still  regard  the  presence  of  churches  as  one  of 
the  best  advertisements  of  boom  towns.  We 
are  to  become  increasingly  familiar  with  such 
rebukes  as  that  which  a  socialist  leader  ad- 
dressed to  an  irate  comrade  who  was  inveigh- 
ing against  the  Church :  "  Cut  out  those 
attacks  on  the  Church.  They're  doing  the 
best  they  know  how,  and  I  believe  they  are 
trying  to  give  us  a  square  deal."  One  of  the 
most  biting  of  the  recent  critics  of  the  Church 
says,  "  Let  not  the  reader  think  of  me  as  a 
spiteful  critic  of  the  churches.  Far  from  it ;  I 
believe  that  they  are  the  hope  of  the  world, 
and  carry  its  future."  The  prejudice  against 
the  Church  is  almost  invariably  directed 
against  the  Church  as  it  is,  not  as  it  ought 
to  be,  can  be,  as  by  God's  help  it  shall  be. 
The  statistics  of  the  churches  for  the  year 
1 91 5  tend  to  confirm  the  belief  that  as  people 
begin  to  think,  they  begin  to  turn  not  from 
the  churches  but  towards  them.  There  is  a 
growing  recognition  of  the  fact  which  another 
has   stated:    *' Break  up  the   Christian  As- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         33 

sembly  for  a  generation  and  Christ's  grip 
upon  the  nations  is  broken." 

But  it  is  insisted  that  there  is  not  the  old 
time  respect  for  "  the  cloth."  No,  thank  God, 
there  is  not.  In  other  days  the  "  cloth " 
might  cover  a  menagerie  of  clean  and  un- 
clean beasts.  To-day  the  cloth  is  respected 
if  and  only  if  it  happens  to  cover  a  man.  But 
then,  how  greatly  is  it  respected.  Easily  the 
first  citizen  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  is  a  minister. 
Was  not  Edward  Everett  Hale  the  first 
citizen  of  Boston  ?  It  is  more  than  possible 
that  the  first  citizen  of  your  own  town  is  a 
minister.  Certainly  the  first  citizen  of  many 
a  town  and  hamlet  in  this  broad  country  is  a 
minister  of  Christ.  If  any  man  dreams  that 
there  is  not  a  present  day  respect  for  the  man- 
covering  cloth,  he  may  do  well  to  consider  the 
efforts  of  the  liquor  dealers  to  make  the  cloth 
cover  one  of  their  spokesmen.  President 
Wilson  did  not  think  he  was  wasting  his  time 
when  he  made  the  journey  from  Washington 
to  Columbus  simply  for  the  sake  of  expressing 
his  interest  in  the  rural  church.  Nor  did  he 
think  that  he  or  his  cause  lost  influence  when 
he  confessed  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  country 
preacher. 

But  surely  the  preacher  has  lost  much  of 
his  power  in  the  community  because  the 
higher  criticism  has  disintegrated  the  faith 


34  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

of  men  ?  It  is  to  be  confessed  that  the  two 
decades  before  1910  were  hard  days  for  the 
younger  men  in  the  ministry.  Historical 
criticism  has  done  and  is  doing  a  work  which 
simply  cannot  be  undone.  Much  rubbish  has 
been  removed.  Strong  and  massive  rise  the 
preachable  truths  of  our  religion  ;  Jesus  Christ, 
the  unveiling  of  God  the  Father,  saviour  from 
sin,  founder  and  pioneer  of  the  civilization  of 
brotherly  men,  prince  of  the  eternal  life. 
What  would  one  have? 

"  But  do  you  not  think  that  the  preacher*s 
field  has  been  invaded  and  largely  occupied 
by  various  modern  organizations,  the  As- 
sociations of  young  men  and  young  women, 
the  social  settlement,  the  neighbourhood 
house  and  the  rest  ?  "  We  need  scarcely  be 
reminded  that  every  one  of  these  enterprises 
is  the  child  of  the  Church.  Not  one  of  them 
could  live  for  five  years  without  the  help  of 
the  Church.  A  friend  of  mine  well  says : 
**  It  is  easy  to  drink  of  a  stream,  and  to  for- 
get the  source."  But  as  all  of  these  organi- 
zations are  the  constant  beneficiaries  of  the 
Church,  practically  all  of  them  are  now  the 
willing  allies  or  rather  auxiliaries  of  the 
Church.  The  representatives  of  these  or- 
ganizations invariably  have  to  explain  them- 
selves or  plead  for  their  right  to  exist  in  a 
community,   the   priest-prophet  never.     His 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         35 

function  is  as  old  as  the  family,  and  will  pass 
when  there  is  no  man  left  to  hear  his  message. 

The  New  York  Eveniyig  Post  is  not  the 
organ  of  the  Intermediate  Endeavour  Society, 
nor  is  it  the  advertising  agent  of  any  theo- 
logical seminary.  You  may  have  read  this 
significant  editorial :  "  Christianity  has  been 
preeminently  the  preached  religion.  In- 
spired preaching  has  in  it  the  greatest  power 
known  to  man,  that  of  a  kindled  personality. 
It  is  the  most  potent  fascination  which  any- 
thing external  in  the  Church  can  wield,  more 
vivid  than  music,  more  direct  than  even 
grand  architecture,  and  fit  adornment  of 
the  temple.  We  ourselves  believe  that  the 
dearth  of  great  preachers  is  only  temporary. 
The  high  themes  are  there,  the  human  heart 
remains  the  same,  the  opportunity  and  the 
aspiration  appeal  to  lofty  natures  as  of  old. 
We  shall  once  more  hear  the  sincere  and 
moving  voices,  which  from  the  beginning  till 
now  have  best  carried  Christian  truth  to  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  men." 

But  to  pass  from  questions  to  assertions  that 
can  scarcely  be  questioned.  The  preacher  is 
set  to  instruct  and  inspire  the  one  organiza- 
tion which  is  commissioned  and  equipped  to 
preserve,  to  interpret  and  to  proclaim  to  our 
times  the  book  which  has  rightly  been  called 
the  Word   of   God.     We   gladly  remember 


36  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

that  a  few  of  our  colleges  and  both  of  our 
Christian  Associations  are  giving  some  in- 
struction in  the  Bible.  At  the  best  they  reach 
only  an  infinitesimal  part  of  the  population. 
The  Bible  is  practically  banished  from  our 
public  schools.  Where  its  use  is  permitted, 
it  is  usually  read,  not  studied.  We  shall 
have  occasion  later  to  consider  the  certain 
disaster  which  would  accompany  the  loss  of 
this  literature  to  our  people. 

Again  the  preacher  is  set  to  instruct  and 
inspire  the  one  organization  to  which  our 
times  must  increasingly  look  for  the  defense, 
the  preservation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath. 
The  state  can  establish  a  holiday,  but  cannot 
establish  a  holy  day,  a  day  of  re-creation, 
from  which  a  man  may,  as  one  puts  it,  ap- 
proach a  new  week  of  work  "  with  a  clearer, 
happier  sense  of  God  and  duty."  Often  you 
have  been  reminded  of  the  forces  which  are 
breaking  down  our  Sabbath,  the  forces  of "  the 
money-makers  and  the  merry-makers."  The 
Sabbath  is  to-day  what  it  was  in  the  days  of 
Emerson,  **  the  core  of  our  civilization,  the 
jubilee  of  the  whole  world."  It  is  God's 
great  gift  of  love  to  tired  people. 

Still  further  the  preacher  ministers  to  our 
times,  as  he  instructs  and  inspires  the  or- 
ganization which  by  its  history  and  constitu- 
tion seeks  the  sanctity  of  the  home.     Our 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         37 

faith  was  born  in  a  home  which  found  shelter 
for  the  time  in  the  stable  of  the  inn  of  Beth- 
lehem. In  the  upper  room  of  a  private  house 
the  Master  and  His  disciples  gathered  for  the 
last  supper.  In  the  upper  room  of  a  private 
house  the  infant  Church  was  born.  There  was 
a  church  in  the  house  of  Philemon,  another 
church  in  the  house  of  Priscilla  and  Aquila. 
In  times  of  persecution,  the  Church  has  always 
fled  for  refuge  to  the  home.  There  have  been 
times  when  the  cloister  and  the  hearth  were 
supposed  to  be  on  different  levels  of  religious 
life.  In  the  thought  of  Jesus  the  cloister  sur- 
rounds and  shelters  the  hearth,  and  in  that 
cloister  walk  father  and  mother,  and  children's 
voices  mingle  with  theirs,  and  the  hearth  itself 
becomes  an  altar.  **  The  whole  effort  of  Jesus 
on  its  human  side,"  says  Matheson,  **  is  to 
make  the  world  a  cosmopolitan  home.  .  .  . 
There  should  be  no  going  out  from  the  family 
circle  into  the  world  ;  there  should  be  a  bring- 
ing of  the  world  into  the  family  circle."  To- 
day the  pressure  of  population  and  of  poverty, 
the  factory  system  which  separates  a  man 
from  his  tools,  the  crimes  of  the  pleasure 
seeker,  the  popular  lack  of  ideals  are  all 
working  for  the  destruction  of  the  home. 
But  Professor  Peabody,  the  teacher  of  us  all, 
has  truly  said  :  "  The  home  holds  the  key  to 
the  salvation  of  the  state."     I  look  without 


38  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

hope  to  any  other  institution  than  the  Church 
to  save  to  us  the  home.  The  Church  must 
and  can  do  it. 

To  speak  more  largely  :  the  preacher  is 
set  to  instruct  and  inspire  the  organization 
which  beyond  all  others  is  commissioned  and 
equipped  to  keep  the  soul  of  our  country 
alive.  A  German  has  divided  his  country- 
men into  Soul-Germans  and  Stomach-Ger- 
mans. There  are  soul- Americans,  and  then 
there  are  stomach-Americans.  How  can  the 
soul  of  our  country  be  kept  alive  except  by 
the  multiplication  of  soul-Americans,  Ameri- 
cans whose  souls  are  alive  to  God  ?  The  task 
is  not  small.  Swiftly  the  conditions  change. 
In  a  single  spring  time,  200,000  people 
move  into  the  single  state  of  North  Dakota. 
Graham  Taylor  calls  our  attention  to  the 
Frontier  in  the  Rear,  the  crowded  tenement 
sections  of  our  great  cities.  Thirty  solid 
blocks,  for  example,  in  New  York  fill  up  with 
Italians.  The  task  is  not  small,  but  it  is 
supremely  the  task  of  the  Church,  backed, 
led  by  the  Christian  preacher,  to  keep  the 
soul  of  our  country  alive.  "  Let  it  never 
be  forgotten,"  says  Silvester  Home,  **  that 
modern  America  sprang  out  of  the  ideal 
relation  between  a  pastor  and  a  church,  a 
man  of  God  and  a  people  of  God." 

But  if  the  preacher  helps  to  keep  the  soul 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         39 

of  America  alive,  he  is  doing  much  to  quicken 
the  faltering,  dying  souls  of  other  lands. 
Your  business  men  are  familiar  with  the  ex- 
ceeding mobility  of  our  foreign  population. 
With  every  winter,  and  especially  with  every 
time  of  financial  stringency  multitudes  of  our 
immigrants  have  been  accustomed  to  pass 
through  the  outward  swinging  gates  of  our 
republic.  I  noticed  that  on  a  December  day 
of  a  recent  year,  the  steamer  President 
Lincoln  set  sail  from  New  York  for  Naples, 
carrying  3,600  Italians.  What  did  those  Ital- 
ians know  about  Lincoln's  country  ?  How 
much  did  they  know  of  Lincoln's  God,  Lin- 
coln's Bible,  Lincoln's  loving  human  brother- 
hood ?  It  is  estimated  that  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  500,000  of  our  foreign  born  may 
return  to  their  native  lands.  These  mis- 
sionaries to  broken-hearted  Europe,  these 
men  who  go  at  their  own  charges,  who  know 
the  vernacular  of  speech  and  of  thought, 
understand  the  prejudices  and  presupposi- 
tions of  their  listeners,  these  men  who  under- 
stand the  psychological  climates  of  their 
countries,  these  men  it  is  the  preacher's  func- 
tion, directly  or  indirectly,  to  touch  with  the 
life  of  God,  and  through  them  to  quicken  the 
souls  of  their  own  lands,  the  soul  of  Europe. 
And  this  leads  me  to  say  that  the  preacher 
ministers  to  our  times,  as  he  instructs  and 


40  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

inspires  the  one  organization  which  must 
finance  and  man  that  enterprise  which  Mac- 
kenzie the  historian  declares  to  be  foremost 
of  those  enterprises  which  are  destined  to 
transform  the  face  of  the  world.  I  refer  to 
the  enterprise  of  foreign  missions.  You  may 
ask  your  Jewish  philanthropist  to  build  your 
hospitals  for  America.  In  many  a  non- 
Christian  land,  the  Church  must  build  them. 
You  may  ask  your  infidel  brother,  with 
more  or  less  hope  of  response,  to  care  for  the 
blind,  the  deaf,  the  hunger-bitten  and  the 
leprous  of  America.  The  burden  of  this  work 
in  many  a  non-Christian  land  falls  upon  the 
Church  at  home.  Who  will  send  forth  God's 
missionaries  to  thwart  the  devil's  missionaries 
over  there  ?  Who  will  send  forth  ambassadors 
of  the  religion  of  love  who  shall  avert  or  allay 
the  friction  which  always  arises  when  West 
meets  East  ?  Who  will  send  forth  interpret- 
ers of  Jesus  who  shall  undo  the  infernal  work 
of  misinterpretation  wrought  by  the  great 
war?  Who  will  carry  the  evangel  to  in- 
dividuals whose  religion  has  brought  to  them 
only  bad  news  ?  Sacrificial  as  they  are,  the 
Christians  of  Europe  for  a  generation  will  be 
hamstrung  in  their  efforts  at  world-evangeliza- 
tion. For  a  generation  almost  exclusively, 
for  the  generations  very  largely,  the  burden 
of  the  Christianization  of  the  world  will  rest 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         41 

upon  the  organization  which  the  American 
preacher  is  set  to  instruct  and  to  inspire. 
The  words  of  John  Ruskin  have  lost  none  of 
their  meaning :  "  The  issues  of  Hfe  and  death 
for  modern  society  are  in  the  pulpit." 

Better  than  any  other  man,  in  a  fashion 
absolutely  unique,  the  preacher  is  enabled  to 
turn  the  life  of  our  times  from  its  discontents 
and  failures  to  Him  who  is  the  only  source  of 
satisfaction,  to  present  to  men  the  personality 
which  alone  meets  and  responds  to  the  as- 
pirations, the  emphasis,  the  appreciations  of 
our  times.  The  times  are  on  tiptoe  to  greet 
the  preacher,  always  provided  the  preacher  is 
the  right  kind  of  man. 

What  kind  of  man  must  the  preacher  be, 
if  he  is  to  be  the  preacher  for  the  times  ?  In 
the  finest  sense  of  the  term  he  must  be  a  man 
of  the  world.  His  life  must  thrill  with  the 
life  of  his  times.  By  the  experience  of  his 
own  heart  or  by  spiritual  imagination,  he 
must  understand  the  discontents  and  failures, 
the  aspirations,  the  emphasis,  the  apprecia- 
tions. As  Schauffler  suggests,  he  must  be 
more  familiar  with  the  church  sons  than  the 
church  fathers,  better  acquainted  with  Jim 
and  Sam  than  with  Origen  and  Chrysostom 
— whom  by  the  way  he  ought  to  k7iow.  He 
must  be  the  voice  of  the  inarticulate  multi- 


42  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

tude,  saying  what  the  multitude  longs  to  say, 
but  cannot.  After  all  there  must  be  a  differ- 
ence. The  clerical  garb  is  a  symbol,  rather 
pathetic  symbol  perhaps,  of  a  separateness 
which  ought  to  exist  between  the  preacher 
and  the  world.  The  preacher  while  a  man 
of  the  world  must  be  God's  man.  As  God's 
man,  he  must  hold  or  rather  be  held  by  cer- 
tain great  convictions.  When  the  Congre- 
gationalists  of  Japan  were  revising  their 
creed,  one  Japanese  preacher  said,  **  I  would 
put  into  my  creed  only  those  convictions  for 
which  I  should  be  willing  to  die."  Whatever 
may  be  the  penumbral  beliefs  of  the  preacher's 
study,  the  preacher  in  his  pulpit  must  be 
conquered  by  certain  convictions  for  which 
he  would  gladly  die,  yes,  for  which  he  would 
gladly  let  his  loved  ones  die.  It  is  a  good 
thing  for  a  man  occasionally  to  face  this 
question  :  "  For  how  many  of  the  beliefs  I  ut- 
tered last  Sabbath  should  I  be  willing  to  die  ? 
Nay,  in  imagination  I  will  stand,  as  many  of 
my  brothers  have  stood,  prisoner  on  the 
bloody  floor  of  a  Chinese  yamen.  There  I 
will  face  this  alternative  :  Give  up  the  belief 
you  preached  last  Sunday,  or  your  little  child 
will  be  killed  before  your  eyes,  your  wife  will 
be  tortured  and  killed  before  your  eyes,  and 
then  you  will  be  tortured  and  killed."  Some 
beliefs  that  have  seemed  central,  fundamental, 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         43 

will  slip  silently  away  to  climb  your  study 
stairs,  to  rest  undisturbed  upon  the  top  of 
your  Hebrew  Bible.  Other  convictions  will 
come  forth  naked,  unashamed,  living,  glori- 
ous, conquering. 

This  means  of  course  that  the  preacher  for 
our  times  must  be  a  man  of  courage.  He 
must  be  able  to  enter  into  the  experience  of 
Frederick  Robertson,  who  says,  *'  Once  in  my 
life  I  knew  and  I  rejoiced  to  know  that  I  was 
pronouncing  the  sentence  of  a  coward's  and 
a  liar's  hell."  The  preacher  may  not  be  one 
of  Dawson's  **  tame  prophets  bound  with 
chains  of  gold."  No  slave  can  preach.  He 
must  have  a  prophet's  heroism,  take  the 
prophet's  risk,  be  **  a  hero  for  the  invisible," 
glad  to  know  that 

"  Life  may  be  given  in  many  ways, 
And  loyalty  to  Truth  be  sealed 
As  bravely  in  the  closet  as  the  field." 

As  God's  man,  the  preacher  for  our  times 
must  be  a  man  of  divine  compassion.  We 
have  read  somewhere  of  a  man  who  had  only 
so  good  a  heart  as  could  be  made  out  of 
brains.  God  has  no  work  for  that  man  in 
the  pulpit.  I  delight  in  that  story  told  of 
Beecher.  He  was  asked,  **  Mr.  Beecher,  what 
is  the  feeling  dominant  in  your  heart  as  you 
face  your  vast  audience  ?  "  He  replied,  "  Com- 
passion, Compassion."     Most  of  us,  as  we  face 


44  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

our  audiences,  are  filled  with  our  sermons  or 
our  fears.  As  Jesus  faced  the  five  thousand 
on  the  grassy  slopes  of  the  Lake  of  Galilee, 
He  was  moved  with  compassion.  The  Pu- 
ritan preacher  remembered  that  Jerusalem 
had  sinned,  and  he  poured  out  his  woes  upon 
her  guilty  life.  The  preacher  for  our  times 
remembers  the  sin,  oh  yes,  but  he  also  re- 
members the  banishment  and  the  bondage, 
the  harps  hanging  on  the  willows,  the  silenced 
songs  of  the  exile  ;  and  he  speaks  comfort- 
ably straight  to  the  heart  of  Jerusalem. 

Again,  as  God's  man,  God's  devotee,  the 
preacher  for  our  times  will  know  in  his  heart 
and  express  in  his  words  the  joy  of  the 
soldier  who  marches  on  to  victory.  What 
was  it  that  made  the  sad  old  world  listen  to 
the  first  message  of  Christianity  ?  It  was 
the  joy  of  the  Christians.  What  gives  power 
to  some  of  the  newer  sects  with  their  feeble 
elephant-breath  philosophies?  It  is  their 
note  of  victorious  joy.  As  the  average 
preacher  stands  in  his  pulpit,  you  ask  your- 
self involuntarily,  "  Who's  dead  ?  "  or  you 
sigh,  "  There  must  be  whooping  cough  again 
at  the  parsonage.'*  Just  think  of  that  man 
Paul.  Beaten  and  imprisoned  in  Philippi, 
hurried  secretly  out  of  Thessalonica,  driven 
from  Bercea,  laughed  out  of  Athens,  in 
Corinth  haled  before  the  judgment  seat  of 


The  Preacher  and  His  Times         45 

Gallio,  everywhere  bonds  and  afflictions 
abide  him  .  .  .  yet  he  cries  jubilantly, 
"  Thanks  be  to  God  who  always  leadeth  us  in 
the  triumph  train  of  Christ  and  by  us  as  censer 
bearers  sheddeth  abroad  the  fragrance  of  the 
knowledge  of  him  in  every  place  through- 
out the  world."  May  not  the  preacher  have 
the  glorious  morning  face  of  the  man  who 
has  achieved  ''the  eternal  worth  while  "  ? 

We  hear  a  brother  preacher  reply  to  all 
this:  *'  You  don't  know  my  field,  its  sceptics 
and  critics  and  cynics  and  dyspeptics."  No 
I  don't.  But  I  know  other  fields.  I  got  a 
letter  a  while  ago  from  one  of  our  graduates  : 
"The  church  was  organized  with  thirteen 
members,  and  by  October  of  the  next  year  it 
had  grown  to  eighteen.  Of  these,  three  of 
the  charter  members  never  really  came  to 
church.  Three  more  of  the  charter  list  and 
two  of  the  others  had  left  town,  and  two 
others  had  withdrawn  to  assist  in  starting  a 
*  Christian '  church.  Of  the  eight  who  re- 
mained in  good  standing,  three  are  half- 
hearted in  their  support  of  the  church."  No, 
I  don't  know  your  church  ;  but  I  remember 
a  certain  monk  by  the  name  of  Luther  who 
began  to  preach  to  his  times  in  a  little  room 
twenty  by  thirty  feet.  I  have  heard  of  a 
certain  tinker  of  pots  and  kettles  and  pans, 
who  walked  through  the  muddy  streets  of 


46  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

Elstow,  or  lay  in  the  foul  prison  of  Bedford, 
yet  sojourned  in  the  Palace  Beautiful,  walked 
the  heights  of  the  Delectable  Mountains, 
made  his  way  by  the  gates  into  the  city.  I 
have  read  that  Charles  Kingsley  *'  spent  his 
whole  life  in  a  little  patch  of  moorland,  a 
parish  with  but  seven  or  eight  hundred 
people,  not  one  of  whom  when  he  began  his 
ministry  could  read  or  write."  We  have 
heard  of  the  man  who  said,  "  My  garden  is 
very  small,  but  oh,  it  is  wondrous  high,** 
and  I  think  that  there  is  no  man  who  tills  a 
garden  so  small,  but  that  it  reaches  up  and 
up  to  the  suburbs  of  Paradise. 

That  is  a  fine  word  of  the  Chronicler; 
"  From  day  to  day  men  came  to  David  to 
help  him,  until  there  was  a  host  like  unto  the 
host  of  God."  So  I  see  them  coming.  To 
the  man  of  the  world,  who  with  David  has 
tasted  the  deep  experiences  of  humanity,  to 
God's  man,  convinced,  courageous,  compas- 
sionate, joyous,  I  see  them  coming.  Com- 
ing to  hear  him  preach  ?  I  do  not  say  that. 
I  see  them  coming,  to  catch  the  inspiration 
of  the  'message  of  his  life — I  see  them  com- 
ing, until  there  gathers  about  that  man  a 
host  like  unto  the  host  of  God. 

The  'great  days  of  preaching  are  coming 
back.  Only  let  us  go  forth  to  meet  them 
and  to  greet  them  as  they  come. 


II 

The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 


II 

THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  SERMON 

AS  a  prelude  to  our  discussion,  I  would 
say  a  few  words  regarding  the  min- 
ister's wife.  In  this  prelude  there 
are  "  three  heads,  all  small,  bald,"  but  we 
trust  not  quite  "empty."  First,  the  minister's 
wife  and  the  congregation  ;  Second,  the  min- 
ister's wife  and  her  children  ;  Third,  the  min- 
ister's wife  and  her  husband. 

First  and  least  important :  The  minister's 
wife  and  the  congregation.  The  minister's 
wife  will  learn  to  keep  silence  in  seven  lan- 
guages. Has  her  husband  worked  pretty 
hard  for  a  week  ?  She  will  not  refer  to  the 
fact.  Has  her  husband  a  poorly  prepared 
sermon  ?  She  will  not  go  around  telling  how 
the  dear  man  has  had  nervous  indigestion 
all  the  week.  She  knows  everything  about 
the  congregation,  but  in  the  ladies'  meetings 
she  knows  nothing.  A  gossip  comes  and 
pours  forth  some  tale  of  some  son  of  worth- 
lessness,  and  she  replies,  *' Is  that  so?  By 
the  way,  don't  you  think  that  the  new  Boys' 
Scout  troop  is  just  fine  ?  " 

She  will  learn  not  only  to  keep  silence  ; 

49 


50  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

she  will  learn  also  to  refuse  election  to  office. 
If  there  is  another  woman  in  the  congrega- 
tion, that  woman  must  be  the  president  of 
the  Women's  Society.  The  minister's  wife 
may  encourage,  soothe,  direct,  but  never 
lead.  Her  best  work  is  done  by  writing 
letters,  by  calling  quietly  upon  the  sick,  by 
helping  the  mothers  and  their  little  ones.  I 
know  such  a  woman.  She  couldn't  speak  in 
meeting  if  she  were  given  as  reward  a  trip  to 
Europe  in  peace  times.  But  she  has  a  way 
of  slipping  into  a  sick  room.  She  puts  a 
bunch  of  carnations  on  the  table  beside  the 
sick  woman,  and  smoothes  the  pillow  a  little, 
and  leaves  in  the  room  the  radiant  sunshine 
of  her  love.  She  takes  to  her  home  Mrs. 
Jones's  three  older  children  while  little 
Johnnie  has  the  measles.  Now  this  is  not 
advertised  in  the  Oscaloosa  Thunderer^  but 
it  is  noticed  in  heaven,  whence  she  came. 

Second :  The  minister's  wife  and  her  chil- 
dren. The  minister's  wife  will  do  her  best  to 
see  that  her  children  do  not  disgrace  the  min- 
ister and  the  church.  This  task  is  not  so 
easy  as  at  first  it  might  appear.  Every  min- 
ister's small  son  is  supposed  to  be  an  ensample 
to  the  flock.  Any  well  organized  boy  hates 
to  be  pointed  out  as  the  minister's  son,  and 
he  may  be  tempted  to  go  far  to  effect  a  dis- 
guise.    The   mother  moreover  will   do   her 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        51 

best  to  see  that  her  children  do  not  acquire  a 
perfect  abhorrence  of  the  ministry,  of  the 
church  and  of  rehgion.  Are  Mrs.  J's  eccen- 
tricities accentuated  at  the  family  table  ?  Is 
Deacon  S's  stinginess  dwelt  upon  ?  Is  Pas- 
tor Q's  wiliness  the  main  topic  of  conversa- 
tion ?  The  small  boy  will  determine  within 
his  little  soul,  "  By  all  the  clergymen  in  the 
United  States,  I  will  never  be  one." 

Third  :  The  minister's  wife  and  her  hus- 
band. The  minister's  wife  will  love  her  hus- 
band, but  she  will  not  coddle  him.  She  will 
compel  her  husband  to  pay  his  bills  to  the 
butcher,  the  baker,  the  candlestick  maker, 
and  to  pay  them  at  the  first  of  the  month,  if 
he  does  not  pay  at  the  time  of  purchase. 
She  will  probably  insist  that  the  minister  give 
her  a  stated  allowance,  with  which  she  may 
do  the  buying  for  the  family.  If  the  minister 
claims  that  he  has  no  money  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  month,  the  wife  will  tell  him  that 
it  is  simply  because  of  the  ragged,  wretched 
system  of  church  support  which  he  has  in- 
troduced or  tolerated.  Loving  her  husband, 
but  not  coddling  him,  she  will  compel  him  to 
tear  up  all  letters  emanating  from  firms 
which  long  to  sell  him  oil  stock,  gold  mines, 
and  the  like.  These  firms  spend  vast  sums  of 
money  upon  us  ministers,  knowing  that  of  all 
men  on  earth  we  have  the  least  common  sense. 


52  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

The  minister's  wife  will  compel  her  hus- 
band to  be  a  law-abiding  citizen.     He  has 
no   more   right   to   run   across  the  grass  in 
front  of  the  church  than  has  the  member  of 
^    the  inknt  class.     He  has  no  right  to  run  in 

^  upon  Mrs.   Nomaid,  when  she  is  preparing 

supper.     These  things  the  wife  will  show  to 

•  her   husband,  who   half   unconsciously  con- 

siders himself  like  Napoleon  above  all  law. 
The  minister's  wife  will  compel  her  husband 
to  be  cleanly  in  his  person.  I  know  a  prom- 
inent minister  who  damages  his  influence 
unspeakably  because  his  coat  is  not  clean, 
his  face  is  not  clean,  his  hair  is  not  cut.  The 
minister  is  an  absent-minded  beggar.  When 
his  mind  is  absent,  his  wife  must  lend  him 
hers. 

Loving  her  husband,  but  refusing  to  cod- 
dle him,  the  minister's  wife  will  compel  him 
to  work  and  to  work  hard.  SJae  will  insist 
that  her  husbapd  be  in  his  office  at  eight  A.  M. 
If  possible  his  office  should  be  in  the  church 
and  not  at  home,  so  that  the  people  of  the 
town  will  see  that  he  goes  to  work  as  they 
go  to  work.  Not  only  that :  she  must  in- 
sist that  her  husband  study  when  he  is  in  his 
study.  To  read  the  newspapers  is  not  to 
study.  To  read  the  average  magazine  is 
not  to  study.  She  will  see  that  he  stays  in 
his  study  from  eight  A.  M.  to  twelve  M.  and 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        3*3 

studies.  No  chickens  in  the  back  yard,  no 
children  in  the  front  yard,  no  vegetables 
going  to  waste  in  the  garden,  can  ever  ex- 
cuse him  from  working  at  his  job. 

Again,  this  minister's  wife  will  insist  that 
no  sweetness  and  light,  no  pastoral  calls 
upon  the  halt,  the  lame,  the  blind ;  no  funer- 
als, no  weddings,  no  Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.  ad- 
dresses, no  temperance  lectures,  can  ever 
take  the  place  of  his  preaching.  No  hur- 
ried preparation  at  two  o'clock  Sunday 
morning,  no  reference  to  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  preparation  after  Sunday  break- 
fast, will  excuse  this  man  from  the  most 
careful  pulpit  preparation.  He  is  a  preacher. 
He  must  **  begin,  continue,  close  the  work 
for  which  he  draws  the  wage." 

On  Sunday  afternoon,  the  minister's  wife 
will  make  a  few  notes  on  the  morning  ser- 
mon. To  these  she  will  not  allude  on  Sun- 
day. In  the  evening  as  she  loves  her  hus- 
band and  pities  him  she  will  be  allowed  to 
stroke  his  head,  to  hold  his  hand  ;  but  Mon- 
day, rather,  Tuesday  morning,  she  will  come 
to  his  study  and  tell  him  the  truth.  She 
will  frankly  say  to  him,  "My  dear,  I  have 
heard  many  poor  sermons  in  my  life,  but 
none  quite  so  bad  as  Sunday's.'*  Nor  will 
that  suffice.  She  must  tell  him  why  and 
how   it  was  bad.     **The  matter  was  badly 


54  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

arranged,  and  there  wasn't  much  matter  to 
be  arranged.  Your  delivery  was  execrable. 
You  have  a  curious  way  of  holding  wildly 
to  your  pulpit  as  to  a  life  raft."  Loving  her 
husband  truly  and  intelligently  she  gradu- 
ally transforms  him  into  a  real  minister. 

The  minister's  wife  does  not  have  as  many 
new  hats  as  her  classmate.  The  dress  in 
which  she  graduated  from  college  must  ap- 
pear at  the  high  school  commencements  of 
her  parish  for  many  years.  She  wears  the 
crown  of  a  people's  peculiar  personal  affec- 
tion, and  the  angels  toil  day  after  day  upon 
the  fabric  of  the  new  robe  which  she  will 
never  have  to  change  or  turn. 

I  must  omit  a  prelude  which  I  should  like 
to  give,  entitled.  The  Preacher  and  his  Sex- 
ton. Each  man  of  us  doubtless  has  suffered 
many  things  from  many  sextons.  For  ex- 
ample, there  is  the  sexton  who  thinks  that  he 
has  done  the  whole  duty  of  a  sexton  when 
he  has  heated  his  building  so  that  no  crea- 
ture but  a  salamander  could  escape  suffoca- 
tion. There  is  the  sexton  who  on  a  cold 
winter  morning  decides  to  take  care  of  his 
fires  fifteen  minutes  before  service.  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  tells  us  that  in  his  first  church 
he  was  his  own  sexton.  I  have  often  thought 
that  this  was  one  reason  for  his  early  success 
as  a  preacher,     I  would  defy  Beecher  himself 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        55 

to  keep  his  audience  awake  when  preaching 
in  the  atmosphere  to  which  a  sexton  will  now 
and  again  subject  the  congregation.  There 
is  a  sexton  who  shall  be  nameless,  for  I  know 
that  many  of  you  would  immediately  offer 
him  a  salary  larger  than  he  is  getting.  He 
does  not  overheat  or  underheat  his  building. 
He  does  not  shake  the  furnace  when  you  are 
in  the  midst  of  the  pastoral  prayer.  He 
does  not  open  the  windows  at  the  most  im- 
portant point  in  the  sermon.  Like  a  good 
usher  and  a  virtuous  woman,  his  price  is 
above  rubies.  The  good  sexton  is  the  si- 
lent but  indispensable  partner  of  the  good 
preacher. 

Shall  we  consider  now  the  immediate  sub- 
ject in  hand  ?  We  have  all  sat  at  the  feet  of 
great  preachers,  and  have  heard  them  praise 
our  calling.  We  have  heard  Dr.  Forsyth 
remark,  "  I  will  venture  to  say  that  with  its 
preaching  Christianity  stands  or  falls,"  and 
we  have  said,  "  Amen."  We  have  heard 
Dr.  JefEerson  say,  "  Preaching  is  your  highest 
business.  Nothing  can  ever  take  its  place. 
You  are  to  be  administrators,  but  administra- 
tion will  not  take  the  place  of  preaching. 
Unless  you  are  preachers,  you  are  not  likely 
to  have  much  to  administer."  And  again 
we   have  said,  **  Amen."    We  have  heard 


^6  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

the  short  ugly  word  of  Dr.  Brown  before  the 
English  Baptist  Union :  "  A  minister  must 
be  able  to  preach."  And  again  we  have 
said,  "  Amen."  Indeed  there  is  no  man  of 
us  who  does  not  offer  daily  the  worthy 
prayer,  **  O  God,  make  me  a  good  preacher." 
And  yet  as  we  face  a  new  Sabbath,  we  face, 
each  of  us,  a  new  pile  of  glittering  white 
paper,  each  sheet  of  which  seems  to  jeer: 
**  You  know  very  well  you  can't  preach. 
You  never  could  preach,  you  never  will 
preach.  You  haven't  one  new  thing  to  say 
next  Sunday."  Can  we  help  each  other? 
The  thought  of  "  Ecce  Homo  "  cheers  one  : 
"  While  the  prophet  whose  prophecy  is  new 
in  substance  is  no  prophet,  so  the  prophet 
whose  prophecy  is  old  in  form  is  no  prophet 
but  a  plagiarist." 

As  preachers,  speakers  for  God,  we  do  not 
for  an  instant  claim  that  the  substance  of  our 
message  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  is  new. 
Rather  we  glory  in  the  fact  that  our  task  has 
been,  is  and  always  will  be  the  same ;  to 
bring  every  thought  of  men  into  captivity  to 
the  obedience  of  the  God  who  reveals  Him- 
self in  Jesus  Christ. 

**  Subtlest  thought  shall  fail  and  learning  falter, 
Churches  change,  forms  perish,  systems  go, 
But  our  human  needs,  they  will  not  alter, 
Christ  no  after  age  shall  e'er  outgrow." 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        57 

If  by  God's  grace  we  can  only  preach  Christ, 
so  that  men  shall  see  Him,  we  shall  have  ful- 
filled our  highest,  our  sole  ambition. 

The  substance  of  the  message  is  not 
new ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  prophet  whose 
prophecy  is  old  in  form  is  no  prophet  but 
a  plagiarist. 

How  then  shall  we  gain  the  novelty  of 
sermonic  form,  which  the  prophecy  of  to-day 
requires?  Or  to  state  our  question  more 
broadly  and  truly,  How  may  we  hope  to 
prepare  and  preach  sermons  to  our  times  ? 

We  shall  read  books,  not  widely  perhaps, 
but  well.  We  have  all  made  note  of  the 
retirement  of  Dr.  Clifford  from  his  London 
church  after  a  continuous  pastorate  of  fifty- 
seven  years.  See  what  he  says  of  his  read- 
ing :  **  I  believe  in  keeping  a  good  biography 
on  hand  for  stimulus,  encouragement  and  in- 
spiration. The  second  kind  of  reading  is 
what  I  would  call  disciplinary.  It  is  reading 
with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  keeping  the 
machine  in  order,  of  keeping  one's  mental 
knife  edge  as  keen  as  possible.  Such  hard, 
stiff  reading  is  a  sine  qua  non  for  the 
preacher  who  would  protect  his  mind  against 
the  cheapening,  shallowing  process  which 
operates  upon  every  man  who  does  not  in 
some  real  sense  remain  a  student  all  his 
days.     The  third  type  of  reading  is  the  ex- 


58  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

plicitly  professional,  the  reading  definitely 
for  next  Sunday's  sermon."  Benson  as  well 
as  Clifford  emphasizes  the  importance  of 
biography,  and  suggests  that  we  should  read 
especially  the  lives  of  great  contemporaries. 
These  men  are  the  fruits  of  the  past  and 
the  roots  of  the  age  that  is  to  be.  Some 
preachers  read  many  sermons  of  other  men. 
Most  of  us  would  find  the  burden  laid  upon 
us  greater  than  we  could  bear.  But  some 
sermons  are  stimulating.  In  reading  a  ser- 
mon, one  finds  it  interesting  to  get  at  the 
processes  by  which  a  great  preacher  works 
his  way  into  and  out  of  his  subject.  What 
led  him  to  think  of  this  idea?  How  did  he 
proceed  to  that  next  idea  ?  Innocent  but  in- 
quisitive Delilahs,  we  shall  compel  this  Sam- 
son of  a  preacher  to  tell  us  wherein  his  great 
strength  lieth. 

As  we  study  the  printed  page,  we  shall  be 
students  of  nature.  What  a  curious  fact  is 
that,  noted  by  Nash,  that  while  Calvin  lived 
long  by  Lake  Geneva,  there  is  no  evidence 
that  he  ever  really  saw  it. 

As  we  study  books  and  nature  we  shall 
study  men,  men  who  are  now  upon  the  earth. 
Here  for  example  is  the  man  in  the  pew.  In 
one  of  his  annual  reports,  Dr.  Pritchett  says, 
"A  hundred  years  ago  ministers  were  the 
educated  men  of  their  communities,  and  their 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        59 

power  was  in  proportion.  In  the  interval, 
the  congregations  have  risen  enormously  in 
the  scale  of  general  education.  With  this 
rise,  the  law  and  medicine  have  to  a  large 
extent  kept  pace,  but  the  Church  has  rela- 
tively fallen  back.  In  the  Protestant  churches 
where  the  power  of  authority  has  largely 
passed  away,  the  Church  depends  upon  the 
quality  of  the  religious  leadership  of  its 
preachers.  The  efficiency  in  this  leadership 
is  low."  Study  then  the  man  in  the  pew. 
You  discover  that  your  message  is  not  heard 
simply  because  it  is  the  message  of  the 
Church  or  of  the  preacher.  Your  judgment 
is  weighed,  and  not  seldom  found  wanting. 
"You  sit  in  your  tower  study  all  the  week 
and  then  come  down  to  censor  us,  who  have 
been  bearing  the  burden  of  the  day  and  the 
scorching  heat." 

But  you  follow  this  **  man  in  the  pew  "  to  his 
home.  Once  in  a  while  you  hear  a  very 
great  preacher  or  a  very  small  theologue 
disparage  pastoral  calls.  He  will  not  be 
bothered  by  pink  tea  visitations.  You  go 
to  the  hospital  to  sit  beside  a  young  fellow 
who,  in  order  that  his  mother  at  his  death 
may  have  his  insurance  money,  has  attempted 
to  commit  suicide.  Is  that  pink  tea  visita- 
tion? You  call  upon  an  aged  woman  who 
is  about  to  slip  out  into  the  other  world,  you 


6o  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

repeat  to  her  the  old  words,  "  He  that  be- 
lieveth  on  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet 
shall  he  live,  and  whosoever  liveth  and  be- 
lieveth  on  me  shall  never  die."  You  talk 
with  a  Sunday-school  teacher  about  the  best 
way  to  handle  a  large  class  of  small  boys. 
You  take  the  hand  of  a  father  whose  daugh- 
ter has  gone  wrong.  Is  that  pink  tea  visita- 
tion ? 

I  suppose  one  of  the  most  impressive 
preachers  in  New  York  is  Dr.  Jowett.  I  do 
not  know  how  much  calling  he  does,  but 
these  words  of  his  are  significant :  "  When  I 
have  got  my  theme  clearly  defined,  and  I  be- 
gin to  prepare  its  exposition,  I  keep  in  the 
circle  of  my  mind  a  dozen  men  and  women 
very  varied  in  their  natural  temperaments 
and  very  dissimilar  in  their  daily  circum- 
stances. These  are  not  mere  abstractions. 
Neither  are  they  dolls  and  dummies.  They 
are  real  men  and  women  whom  I  know,  pro- 
fessional people,  trading  people,  learned  and 
ignorant,  rich  and  poor.  When  I  am  pre- 
paring my  work,  my  mind  is  constantly 
glancing  round  this  invisible  circle,  and  I  con- 
sider how  I  can  so  serve  the  bread  of  this 
particular  truth  as  to  provide  welcome  nutri- 
ment for  all.  What  relation  has  this  teach- 
ing to  that  barrister  ?  How  can  the  truth  be 
related  to  that  doctor?    What  have  I  here 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        6l 

for  that  keenly  nervous  woman  with  the  ar- 
tistic temperament  ?  And  there  is  that  poor 
body,  upon  whom  the  floods  of  sorrow  have 
been  rolUng  their  billows  for  many  years. 
What  of  her  ?  And  so  on,  all  round  the  cir- 
cle." Perhaps  a  man  can  do  that  kind  of 
sermon  preparation  without  pastoral  calling. 
Could  you?  When  John  Mitchell  was  asked, 
*'  What  courses  of  study  would  you  introduce 
into  the  seminary?"  he  replied,  "Several 
courses  in  human  sympathy."  Speaking  of 
Charles  Brown,  of  England,  one  writes  :  **  He 
belongs  to  the  happily  once  more  increas- 
ing class  to  whom  pastoral  visitation  is  a  holy 
ministry.  One  could  not  picture  him  like  a 
very  eloquent  preacher  it  was  my  misfortune 
to  know,  writing  to  one  of  his  regular  mem- 
bers three  months  after  his  death." 

Nor  will  the  preacher  confine  his  studies  of 
men  to  the  man  in  the  pew ;  he  will  study 
as  well  the  greatly  overworked  man  in  the 
street,  the  man  who  finds  utterance  in  the 
lodge  rooms,  in  the  labour  conclaves  of  the 
country,  in  the  secular  press.  "  What  good 
came  of  it  at  last  ?  "  The  sensible  question 
of  little  Peterkin  is  being  asked  insistently. 
The  man  in  the  street  sees  splendid  church 
edifices,  discovers  the  preachers  apparently 
neither  among  the  toilers  nor  the  spinners. 
He  marks  the  remission  of  taxes  on  church 


62  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

property,  and  the  correspondingly  increased 
taxation  upon  other  property.  He  measures 
achievements  by  the  yard-stick  of  his  own 
business.  You  may  recall  an  editorial  in  the 
Springfield  Republican  a  while  ago :  "  Next 
Sunday  the  churches  of  the  city  of  Spring- 
field will  be  opened  after  the  summer  vaca- 
tion. It  will  now  be  their  task  to  show  the 
people  of  this  city  if  they  are  worth  the  ex- 
pense involved  in  opening  and  maintaining 
them." 

Bishop  Spaulding  of  Utah,  that  gallant 
young  knight  whose  sudden  death  we  lament, 
said  to  us  men  in  Oberlin  :  "  There  is  no  man 
who  can  cut  down  through  so  many  strata  of 
society  as  the  minister."     Let  us  cut  down. 

A  student  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men,  the  preacher  will  be  as  well  a  student  of 
movements  of  thought  and  organization. 
Here  are  religious  enterprises  outside  the  pale 
of  Protestant  orthodoxy,  enterprises  which 
appeal  to  numbers  of  well  dressed  and  sup- 
posedly intelligent  people,  whose  devotion  to 
their  creed  and  church  puts  us  all  to  shame, 
who  point  with  perfect  confidence  to  the  fruits 
of  their  faith  to  validate  their  creeds.  Such 
enterprises  deserve  reflection  rather  than  ridi- 
cule. The  study  of  movements  will  involve 
the  more  hopeful  and  profitable  study  of  the 
Federal  Council  of  Churches,  the  League  to 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        63 

Enforce  Peace,  the  World  Alliance  of  the 
Churches  for  the  Promotion  of  International 
Friendship.  A  student  need  not  be  an  ex- 
pert. But  only  by  such  study  can  we  escape 
the  sharp  stab  of  the  epigram  of  Voltaire, 
quoted  by  Vedder,  *'  Medicine  is  the  art  of 
putting  drugs  of  which  we  know  little  into 
bodies  of  which  we  know  less,  to  cure  diseases 
of  which  we  know  nothing  at  all."  Isn't 
that  a  charming  suggestion:  "A  preacher 
should  have  in  his  study  one  mirror  but 
many  windows"  ? 

Now  all  this  sympathetic  study  of  ours  re- 
lates itself  more  or  less  consciously  to  the 
main  task  of  life.  There  are  few  more  pathetic 
sights  about  a  college  campus  than  the  sight 
of  a  man  who  has  gone  on  studying,  study- 
ing, adding  initials  to  his  name,  only  that 
and  nothing  more.  The  student  is  the  free 
servant  of  the  preacher.  The  minister  must 
be  able  to  preach. 

"  Well,"  you  say,  '*  while  you  have  been 
indulging  in  these  glittering  generalities, 
that  pile  of  glittering  white  paper  has  been 
staring  at  me,  jeering  at  me.  What  of  my 
particular  Sunday  sermon?"  Perhaps  that 
question  was  or  ought  to  have  been  decided 
last  summer  when  you  were  thinking  through 
your  plan  of  campaign  for  the  ensuing  year. 
In  the  summer  you  labelled  great  envelopes 


64  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

or  folders  with  such  titles  as  Communion, 
Thanksgiving,  Foreign  Missions,  New  Years. 
As  a  non-ritualist,  you  have  found  special 
delight  in  planning  for  the  large  use  of  the 
days  of  the  Christian  Year.  It  is  one  of  the 
ways  in  which  we  may  emphasize  our  fellow- 
ship with  multitudes  of  our  brethren  in  the 
Christian  Church  throughout  the  world.  You 
have  of  course  marked  certain  folders,  Christ- 
mas, Palm  Sunday,  Easter.  Perhaps  you 
have  decided  to  observe  such  days  as 
Epiphany,  Whitsunday,  Ascension  Day. 
You  have  always  found  it  particularly  hard 
to  preach  on  the  evening  of  a  great  feast 
day.  You  were  glad  to  notice  that  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Christian  year  suggests  the 
26th  of  December  as  St.  Stephen's  Day,  the 
day  commemorating  the  man  who  better 
than  any  of  his  contemporaries  to  date  un- 
derstood the  implications  of  the  message  of 
Jesus. 

Again,  last  summer  you  labelled  certain 
folders  with  the  names  of  the  days  of  pa- 
triotism. You  determined  in  some  fashion 
to  mark  Forefathers'  Day,  Lincoln's  Birth- 
day, Washington's  Birthday.  A  discriminat- 
ing Englishman  said  to  me  that  a  serious 
calamity  to  England  at  the  present  crisis  is 
the  long  failure  of  England  to  teach  pa- 
triotism to  her  industrial  classes. 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        65 

Last  summer  too,  you  determined  that  this 
year  you  would  observe  at  least  by  some 
pulpit  reference,  in  the  morning  or  the  even- 
ing, certain  days  of  reform,  like  Prison  Sun- 
day, Universal  Peace  Sunday.  You  made 
tentative  plans  for  the  suitable  celebration,  in 
the  fall,  of  Covenant  Sunday,  when  you  would 
speak  particularly  to  the  parents  and  teachers 
of  the  Bible  School  pupils.  You  thought  a 
little  way  into  a  special  service  and  sermon 
for  Children's  Day.  Not  that  you  decided 
to  make  of  yourself  a  talking  almanac,  but 
that  you  did  decide  to  meet  in  a  sympathetic 
and  helpful  way  the  mood  and  temper  of 
your  people  and  your  community.  As  you 
were  considering  your  plan  of  campaign  for 
the  church  year,  you  thought  at  or  through 
certain  plans  for  the  evening  services.  There 
were  to  be  brief  courses  of  consecutive  ser- 
mons. Or  you  decided  that  on  the  first 
Sunday  of  each  of  four  months  you  would 
preach  an  expository  sermon  on  one  of  the 
parables,  on  the  second  Sunday  you  would 
make  a  preacher's  study  of  some  great  biog- 
raphy, on  the  third  Sunday  you  would  con- 
sider some  aspect  of  social  or  civic  reform, 
on  the  last  Sunday  you  would  preach  an 
evangelistic  sermon. 

Thus  the  labelled  folders  began  to  multiply ; 
but  you  remind  me  of  that  busy  woman  who 


66  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

in  an  attempt  to  catch  up  with  her  corre- 
spondence found  much  comfort  in  addressing 
and  stamping  envelopes,  which  she  never 
filled.  A  labelled  envelope  is  not  a  sermon. 
That  is  true,  but  it  is  also  true  that  thoughts 
fly  to  labelled  envelopes  as  doves  fly  to  their 
windows. 

In  those  summer  days  moreover  you  de- 
cided what  should  be  the  special  emphasis 
of  your  work  for  the  new  church  year.  Per- 
haps you  said  nothing  about  this  to  any  one ; 
but  you  determined  to  emphasize  definite 
and  persistent  Bible  study,  or  some  aspect  of 
world  evangelism,  or  individual  work  for 
individuals,  or  the  reconstruction  of  the  busi- 
ness and  social  life  of  your  community  in 
accordance  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
This  decision  has  helped  to  dictate  not  alone 
your  reading  but  your  choice  of  the  year's 
sermon  material. 

But  alas,  how  can  a  man  give  novelty  of 
form  to  one  hundred  and  four  sermons  deal- 
ing with  the  same  old  substance  of  thought  ? 
The  task  is  not  light,  but  it  is  not  impossible. 
In  obedience  to  a  suggestion  of  George  Adam 
Smith,  you  were  giving  some  months  of  study 
to  the  book  of  Deuteronomy.  You  were  not 
getting  along  very  well,  but  at  last  came 
to  this  passage,  "  The  eternal  God  is  thy 
dwelling-place,  and  underneath  are  the  ever- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        67 

lasting  arms"  ;  and  you  saw  the  Jerusalem  of 
Josiah's  day,  ground  as  wheat  beneath  the 
upper  and  the  nether  millstones  of  Assyrian 
and  Egyptian  policies,  busy  politicians  hurry- 
ing hither  and  yon  to  find  some  new  master  to 
serve,  an  ignorant  populace  climbing  to  the 
house  roofs  to  discover  some  new  gods  to 
worship,  a  young  king  with  more  zeal  than 
wisdom  trying  to  reform  Jehovah  worship.  A 
book  is  discovered  in  the  debris  of  the  temple. 
As  it  is  read  to  the  king  it  approves  itself  to  be 
the  law  of  God.  As  the  king  hears,  he  rends 
his  garments  and  weeps,  but  at  the  last  of 
the  book  the  great  words  come  to  his  ears, 
'*  The  eternal  God  is  thy  dwelling-place,  and 
underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms."  "  O 
King,  no  king's  palace  is  thy  dwelling-place, 
the  eternal  God  is  thy  home.  No  arms  of 
flesh  sustain  thee  ;  underneath  are  the  ever- 
lasting arms."  You  have  your  sermon.  All 
that  home  means,  when  it  means  most.  Life, 
Love,  Rest,  Joy,  that  and  more  God  means. 
That  and  more.  Why  more?  Because  God 
is  God,  and  one  marks  the  emphasis  upon 
that  word  Eternal.  **  The  eternal  God  is  thy 
home."  We  are  Hke  the  children  of  a  king 
who  on  the  palace  floor  build  their  little 
shacks.  Let  them  tear  down  the  shacks, 
they  will  find  themselves  in  the  palace. 
Again,    "  Underneath    are    the    everlasting 


68  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

arms."  All  that  a  father's  arms  mean  when 
they  mean  most,  that  and  more  God's  sup- 
port must  mean.  What  do  a  father's  arms 
mean?  Protection,  Peace,  Strength,  We 
remember  seeing  a  little  baby  placed  in  his 
older  brother's  arms.  The  baby  cried  for 
fright.  The  baby  did  not  realize  that  both 
he  and  his  brother  were  in  the  strong  arms 
of  the  mother.  Underneath,  away  down 
underneath,  are  the  everlasting  arms.  So 
your  sermon  grows  in  your  folder  sermon 
garden. 

Or  again,  in  your  reading  of  the  New 
Testament,  you  happened  upon  Dr.  MofTatt's 
literal  translation,  and  there  flashed  upon  you 
the  words,  "We  are  a  colony  of  heaven." 
How  beautiful  I  .  .  .  and  all  your  fading 
memories  of  the  rights  and  obligations  of  the 
Roman  colony  came  to  your  mind,  and 
another  sermon  began  to  grow. 

You  chanced  to  be  reading  a  sermon  of 
Campbell,  and  you  came  upon  words  like 
these,  "  As  I  was  climbing  a  mountain  one 
misty  morning,  I  saw  what  I  took  to  be  a 
monster.  As  I  drew  nearer  I  saw  it  was  a 
man.  As  I  met  him  I  saw  he  was  my 
brother."  And  by  some  association  of  ideas, 
there  came  to  you,  without  your  seeking,  the 
great  words,  *'  The  dayspring  from  on  high 
shall  visit  us,  to  shine  upon  them  that  sit  in 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        69 

darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death,  to  guide 
our  feet  into  the  way  of  peace."  "  Illumina- 
tion, Guidance."  With  the  coming  of  the 
day-dawn,  men  who  have  groped  about  in 
the  half  light  seeing  monster  shapes  now 
find  the  pathway  to  peace,  and  in  every  man 
see  their  brother. 

One  evening  you  were  reading  Mrs. 
Browning's  "  Casa  Guidi  Windows."  You 
came  upon  these  lines  : 

**  So  rise  up  henceforth  with  a  cheerful  smile, 
And  having  strewn  the  violets,  reap  the  corn. 
And  having  reaped  and  garnered,  bring  the  plough, 
And  draw  new  furrows  'neath  the  healthy  morn, 
And  plant  the  great  Hereafter  in  this  Now." 

The  thought  gripped  you :  *'  Planting  the 
great  Hereafter  in  this  Now."  As  you  knelt 
in  prayer  that  night,  it  held  you  still :  "  Plant- 
ing the  great  Hereafter  in  this  Now."  The 
next  morning  you  woke  with  the  idea  which 
would  not  let  you  go.  You  didn't  read  Mrs. 
Browning  to  get  a  sermon  ;  but  as  an  addi- 
tional largess,  she  gave  you  the  germ  of  one 
which  would  grow  in  your  sermon  garden. 

You  were  glancing  over  an  Atlantic 
Mo7ithly :  "The  writer  knows  a  young 
Frenchman  who  when  the  war  broke  out 
had  lived  for  three  years  in  this  country, 
and  hoped  to  make  it  a  permanent  home. 
To  him  his  mother  wrote,  *  My  son,  your  two 


JO  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

brothers  are  at  the  front.  Are  you  not  com- 
ing back  to  fight  for  France  ?  *  "  Are  you 
not  coming  back  to  fight  for — for  what?  for 
France?  Will  a  man  leave  comfort,  peace, 
life,  and  lay  them  all  a  willing  sacrifice  on  the 
altar  of  patriotism,  and  shall  we  not  find 
Americans  who  will  answer  the  summons  of 
the  Kingdom  ?  So  you  thought,  not  in  order 
to  preach.  So  you  thought  because  you 
were  a  preacher.  And  your  seed  was  planted 
which  one  day  would  become  a  sermon  on 
The  Call  of  the  Kingdom. 

Or  you  noticed  a  news  item :  "  Now  in 
preparation  for  another  raid  this  winter,  the 
Turks  have  built  a  temporary  railroad,  con- 
necting with  the  Damascus  Haifa  line  down 
through  Nablus  and  Lydda  to  Beersheba. 
They  have  torn  up  the  tracks  from  Jaffa  as 
far  as  Lydda  but  retain  the  Jerusalem  con- 
nection." The  little  item  was  just  the  needed 
spark  to  set  your  mind  aflame  to  start  a 
series  of  sermons  which  should  deal  with 
certain  other  travellers  along  those  ancient 
paths,  or  perhaps  with  the  problems  of  the 
Life  and  Leaders  of  the  Early  Church. 

So,  now  it  is  a  Bible  passage  that  yields 
you  your  sermon  germ,  now  it  is  a  narrative 
from  the  common  life,  now  a  poem,  now  a 
letter,  now  the  careful  consideration  of  some 
theme  of  theology.    The  infinite  riches  of  life, 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        71 

of  all  life,  are  ours.  Dr.  Jefferson  has  some 
delightful  remarks  to  this  effect :  "  It  is  not 
well  to  cultivate  the  homiletic  habit,  the 
habit  of  demanding  a  pound  of  sermonic 
flesh  from  every  Antonio  you  chance  to 
meet.  One  ought  not  to  be  thinking  shop 
all  the  time.  A  man  who  is  always  working 
for  sermons  is  as  foolish  as  a  man  who  is 
always  working  for  money.  Landscapes  and 
historic  ruins  and  children,  and  all  other 
lovely  things  are  to  be  enjoyed.  We  wrong 
a  book  when  we  read  it  simply  for  the  things 
which  we  can  use.  It  is  desecration  of  a 
poem  to  read  it  for  fine  phrases  with  which 
to  deck  a  sermon,  and  we  wrong  the  master- 
piece of  an  historian  if  we  follow  him  only 
for  an  illustration  with  which  to  brighten  up 
an  argument.  It  is  only  when  we  gloriously 
forget  ourselves,  as  Mrs.  Browning  has  re- 
minded us,  and  plunge  headlong  into  the 
depths  of  the  author's  thought  that  we  get 
out  of  a  book  the  best  thing  which  the  book 
has  to  give." 

We  may  accept  the  teaching  of  the  para- 
graph, while  remembering  at  the  same  time 
certain  facts :  A  preacher  may  not  read  a 
poem  in  order  to  find  a  sermon,  but  as  he 
reads  he  does  not  cease  to  be  a  preacher.  I 
have  been  interested  to  sit  behind  a  con- 
servatory  professor    during   the   concert   of 


72  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

some  great  musician  who  plays  the  instru- 
ment which  the  professor  teaches.  The  pro- 
fessor's body  sways  back  and  forth  with  the 
rhythm  of  the  music.  Indeed  his  nervous 
system  seems  to  be  a  harp  on  which  the 
musician  plays,  and  yet  on  the  morrow  the 
professor  will  point  out  to  his  pupils  the 
accuracy  or  the  defects  of  the  artist's  tech- 
nique, will  analyze  with  merciless  fidelity  the 
elements  of  the  master's  art.  In  listening  to 
the  concert,  the  professor  does  not  cease  to 
be  a  professor.  The  homiletic  faculty,  if  you 
please,  does  not  sleep  when  the  faculty  of 
appreciation  is  most  awake.  When  Jowett 
made  a  little  toy  water-wheel  for  his  child, 
and  used  the  waters  of  the  Welsh  hills  to 
drive  the  wheel,  he  did  not  help  his  child  in 
order  to  preach,  but  his  task  lost  none  of  its 
fascination,  as  he  was  led  by  it  to  think  as  a 
preacher  that  a  man  may  get  the  great  river 
of  God's  life  and  power  to  operate  the  little 
mill  of  his  personal  life,  as  his  task  reminded 
him  of  the  text,  "The  Lord  is  MY  Strength." 
Speaking  to  the  younger  men  in  the  ministry, 
I  should  dare  to  go  even  further,  and  to  re- 
mind them  that  Bushnell  *'  cultivated  deter- 
minately  the  preacher's  habit  of  mind."  It 
is  instructive  to  study  the  biographer's  ex- 
cerpts from  Phillips  Brooks's  early  note- 
books, and  to  see  how  the  man  was  making 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        73 

his  reading,  his  experiences,  his  observations 
serve  his  preaching.  One  who  has  dealt  at 
all  with  seminary  students  will  bear  me  out 
in  saying  that  while  in  their  college  courses 
they  have  been  walking  over  acres  of  homilet- 
ical  diamonds,  they  come  into  the  seminary 
utterly  unaware  of  their  wealth.  The  homiletic 
habit  is  not  a  disastrous  habit  for  a  young 
man  to  cultivate  provided  it  does  not  be- 
come a  monomania.  Walking  is  easy  when 
you  know  how  to  walk.  The  homiletic  habit 
does  not  need  to  be  cultivated,  when  you 
have  it,  and  the  reason  is  that  the  habit 
persists  and  flourishes  without  assistance 

Still  that  Sunday  sermon  goes  unwatched, 
untended.  What  about  it?  I  think  I  can 
see  a  sickly  little  sprout  sticking  its  head 
above  the  ground.  Let  us  try  to  cultivate  it. 
"  But  I  don't  feel  like  preparing  a  sermon 
this  morning."  That  doesn't  make  any  dif- 
ference. We  shall  do  everything  within  our 
power  to  make  ourselves  feel  like  working. 
You  remember  that  James  suggests  :  **  Com- 
pared with  what  we  ought  to  be,  we  are  half 
awake.  Our  fires  are  damped,  our  drafts  are 
checked.  We  are  making  use  of  only  a  small 
part  of  our  possible  mental  and  physical  re- 
sources." 

I   heard   of  one   man,   who  when  he  felt 


74  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

"  like  a  walrus  on  an  ice  floe,  heavy,  nielan- 
choly,  ineffective,"  could  warm  and  vitalize 
and  make  efficient  his  powers  if  he  put  on  a 
dress-suit,  and  went  to  his  desk  as  to  a  dance. 
A  friend  of  mine  has  a  victrola,  which  by  re< 
quest  will  play  for  him  a  Beethoven  sonata, 
and  lift  him  up  into  the  seventh  heaven,  where 
he  hears  unspeakable  tv^ords  which  it  is  not 
lawful  for  a  man  to  utter.  The  experience 
however  gives  him  words  to  speak  to  his 
congregation.  The  winds  of  heaven  may 
not  always  blow  upon  a  man's  sails,  but  the 
sails  must  be  ready  to  catch  them  when  they 
come.  You  have  read  the  word  of  Philo, 
"  At  times,  coming  to  my  work  empty  I  have 
suddenly  become  full,  ideas  being  sown  upon 
me  in  showers  from  above."  We  have  all 
tasted  of  that  divine  experience.  Eight  hours* 
sleep,  a  light  breakfast,  a  quiet  sunny  room 
for  uninterrupted  study,  a  room  which  as  one 
suggests  is  not  so  much  an  office  as  an  ora- 
tory,— these  for  most  preachers  are  essentials. 
Have  you  ever  ventured  into  the  workshop 
of  a  poor  preacher?  It  reminds  you  of  the 
anteroom  of  a  children's  nursery,  or  the  ves- 
tibule of  the  morgue.  All  is  explained,  the 
cluttered  sermon,  the  chilling  sermon,  the 
dead  sermon. 

Let  us  then  assume  that  the  external  con- 
ditions of  study  are  favourable.     Let  us  as- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        75 

sume  that  we  have  our  text.  Deliberately 
we  study  it.  Then  with  great  care  we  study 
the  context.  In  case  of  doubt  as  to  exegesis, 
we  dig  into  an  International  Critical  Com- 
mentary, provided  the  correct  volume  has 
come  from  the  press.  I  am  planning  to  will 
to  my  descendants  my  order  for  the  complete 
set,  which  I  executed  a  decade  ago.  If  the 
International  Commentary  is  not  available, 
we  shall  use  some  other  commentary  which 
compels  us  to  think  rather  than  permits  us 
to  stop  thinking.  There  are  great  names 
subscribed  to  letters  commending  homilet- 
ical  commentaries  which  would  make  a  man 
a  mental  Mephibosheth  for  life.  No  preacher 
ever  thrived  on  peptonized  food. 

Gradually  out  of  the  gloom  our  theme  ap- 
pears, the  thing  we  are  going  to  preach  about, 
the  sermon  in  little.  Perhaps  it  chances  to 
develop  into  a  straight  ethical  sermon.  How 
is  a  man  going  to  be  saved  from  saying  an 
undisputed  thing  in  such  a  solemn  way? 
Has  not  a  writer  said,  "  Men  see  already  with 
exasperating  clearness  what  their  duty  is  "  ? 
Yes,  they  do,  sometimes.  Sometimes  a  man 
will  say  to  you  quite  plainly  as  a  man  said 
a  while  ago  to  Rauschenbusch,  "  I  cannot  be 
a  Christian ;  there  is  too  much  lying  in  my 
business."  To  men  who  see  their  duty  with 
exasperating  clearness,   our  message  is  the 


76  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

message  of  the  cross.  And  at  a  time  when 
ninety-five  per  cent,  of  Europe's  university 
men  have  been  sent  to  the  front,  and  the 
greater  part  destroyed,  I  will  not  believe  that 
the  men  of  America  will  refuse  the  call  of  the 
cross.  Will  Jesus  not  find  men  in  the  indus- 
trial life  of  America  who  will  dare  to  be  Chris- 
tians ?    Jesus  has  found  them,  will  find  them. 

"  And  where  is  the  man  who  comes  up  from  the 

throng, 
Who  does  the  new  deed,  and  who  sings  the 

new  song. 
And  who  makes  the  old  world  as  a  world  that 

is  new  ? 
And  who  is  the  man  ?     It  is  you  !  it  is  you  ! 
And  our  praise  is  exultant  and  proud. 
We  are  waiting  for  you  there,  for  you  are  the 

man  ! 
Come  up  from  the  jostle  as  soon  us  you  can ; 
Come  up  from  the  crowd  there,  for  you  are 

the  man, — 
The  man  who  comes  up  from  the  crowd." 

But  there  are  hosts  of  men  who  do  not  see 
their  duty  clearly,  who  would  like  to  do  their 
duty  if  they  knew  it.  Your  ethical  sermon 
will  help  these  men  to  find  the  narrow  but 
divinely  wide  gate  that  leads  into  Jesus'  way. 
And  as  you  prepare  your  sermon  you  will 
find  courage  for  your  task  in  the  words  of 
Faunce :  **  There  is  more  eagerness  to  hear 
a  worthy  appeal  to  the  sense  of  duty  to-day 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        77 

than  ever  since  Miles  Standish  stepped  on 
Plymouth  Rock." 

Or  your  sermon  turns  out  to  be  a  strictly 
doctrinal  sermon.  We  have  hesitated  to 
preach  sermons  dealing  with  doctrine,  but  I 
ask  you  men  who  have  been  preaching  the 
past  years  what  sermons  have  met  the  most 
immediate,  obvious  and  hearty  response.  I 
venture  to  believe  they  have  been  sermons  in 
which  you  have  spoken  of  the  God  we  trust, 
the  Master  we  serve,  the  Eternal  Life.  Presi- 
dent Eliot  truly  says :  *'  Through  constant 
changes  in  direction  of  interests,  theological 
themes  remain  the  themes  of  supreme  interest 
to  thinking  men."  But  can  we  put  the  an- 
cient message  of  doctrine  into  new  forms? 
Not  only  can  we  do  so.  We  must  do  so. 
You  know  men,  I  doubt  not,  in  your  very 
seminary,  men  who  know  all  the  old  argu- 
ments, who  are  fighting  in  half  despair  for 
their  faith  in  the  personality  of  God,  the  su- 
premacy of  Christ,  the  reality  of  the  Eternal 
Life.  Only  this  week  it  may  be  you  received 
a  letter  from  a  man  of  choicest  spirit  who  sees 
no  other  hope  for  the  after-death  than  that  of 
**  the  choir  invisible,  of  those  immortal  dead, 
who  live  again," — who  live  alone — "  in  lives 
made  better  by  their  presence."  The  prep- 
aration of  your  doctrinal  sermon  becomes  not 
a  cloister  study  in  theology.     It  is  the  prep- 


78  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

aration  of  food  for  starving  men,  it  is  the 
launching  of  a  life-boat  for  wrestlers  with  the 
troubled  sea. 

Or  your  sermon  turns  out  to  be  an  experi- 
mental sermon,  and  deals  with  the  deep  ex- 
periences of  your  people,  their  sorrows,  their 
fears,  their  joys.  Learning  does  not  help  a 
man  whose  reputation  has  been  ruined.  Ed- 
ucation does  not  uphold  a  woman  whose 
heart  has  been  crushed  by  the  death  of  her 
little  daughter.  You  remember  that  fine 
word  regarding  Dr.  Watson :  "  He  had  a 
great  eye  for  the  sunrise  "  ;  and  that  personal 
word  of  his,  **  Never  can  I  forget  what  a  dis- 
tinguished scholar  who  used  to  sit  in  my 
church  once  said  to  me,  *  Your  best  work  has 
been  to  put  heart  into  men  for  the  coming 
week.'  "  Our  dean  told  me  that  his  baby 
daughter  used  to  sleep  in  a  crib  beside  the 
father's  bed,  and  sometimes  in  the  darkness 
of  the  midnight,  the  father  would  hear  the 
baby's  voice  :  "  Hand,  Hand,"  and  when  the 
father's  hand  was  upon  her  own  she  was  at 
rest.  Your  experimental  sermon  as  it  devel- 
ops in  your  study  is  no  mere  affair  of  homi- 
letics.  It  is  a  great  loving  effort  to  put  heart 
into  men  for  the  coming  week,  to  make  men 
conscious  of  the  hand  which  presses  strong 
and  tender  upon  the  hand  of  each  bewildered 
child  of  God. 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        79 

But  it  is  most  probable  that  you  will  not  be 
able  very  glibly  to  identify  your  sermon  as 
ethical  or  doctrinal  or  experimental.  Your 
ethics  passes  into  doctrine,  your  doctrine  into 
ethics,  and  both  into  Christian  experience. 
Dr.  Fosdick  calls  attention  to  the  words  of 
George  MacDonald  in  his  "  Robert  Falconer," 
"  This  is  a  sane,  wholesome,  practical  work- 
ing faith,  first,  that  it  is  a  man's  business  to 
do  the  will  of  God,  second,  that  God  takes  on 
Himself  the  special  care  of  that  man,  and 
third,  that  therefore  that  man  ought  never  to 
be  afraid  of  anything."  In  the  enunciation 
of  that  wholesome  practical  working  faith, 
we  shall  emphasize  now  the  ethical,  now  the 
doctrinal,  now  the  experimental  aspect. 

As  you  sit  at  your  desk,  or  join  the  peri- 
patetics, of  whom  Crothers  speaks,  and  walk 
back  and  forth,  back  and  forth  in  your  room, 
the  sermon  stuff  grows.  At  last  you  have 
before  you  a  pile  of  half  sheets,  each  with  a 
jotting,  a  note,  an  illustration.  Out  of  the 
chaos  order  develops,  and  the  dry  land  of  an 
outline.  According  to  the  main  heads  or 
headlands  of  this  rough  outline,  you  divide 
your  material  into  three,  four  or  five  piles,  or 
possibly  like  Robertson  into  two  piles.  "  Let 
us  see :  this  thought  goes  under  my  II,  that 
under  my  III,  this  goes  into  the  Introduction." 

Then  we  begin  to  write,  or  perhaps  we  don't. 


8o  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

At  this  point  we  divide  into  two  groups. 
There  are  men  who  never  write  out  their  ser- 
mons in  full,  there  are  others  who  must  write 
every  word.  I  wonder  sometimes  whether 
we  quite  appreciate  the  possible  change  that 
may  be  wrought  in  sermon  preparation  by  the 
invention  and  prevalent  use  of  the  typewriter. 
There  is  many  a  man  who  in  the  old  days  sim- 
ply did  not  have  the  time  to  write  his  sermons 
in  full,  who  finds  that  his  best  thoughts  come 
to  him  as  he  pounds  fast  and  furiously  upon 
the  keys  of  his  typewriter.  The  mechanical 
operation  of  the  hands  tends  to  keep  the 
brain  and  heart  active.  The  homiletical  aris- 
tocrat may  find  it  possible  and  wise  to  dictate 
to  a  typist,  or  preferably  to  a  dictaphone. 
In  three,  four  hours,  the  writing  is  com- 
plete. Now  he  who  has  written  with  fury 
corrects  with  phlegm.  (This  is  one  homiletical 
instruction  that  I  remember  from  my  semi- 
nary days.)  There  is  rearrangement,  read- 
justment. The  adjectives  are  dropped  that 
the  gold  dust  nouns  may  do  the  preacher's 
work  for  him.  The  long  words  are  short- 
ened. ''When  in  doubt,"  says  Hare,  "use 
the  plainest,  the  commonest,  the  most  idio- 
matic. Eschew  fine  words  as  you  would 
rouge.  Love  simple  ones  as  you  would  na- 
I  tive  roses  on  your  cheek."  We  remember 
"^     the  word  of  Beecher,  **  Don't  whip  with  a 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        81 

switch  that  has  the  leaves  on,  if  you  want  to 
tingle."  Have  we  fallen  unconsciously  into 
the  essay  style  ?  We  break  it  up.  Here  dia- 
logue, there  question.  Have  we  forgotten 
the  radical  distinction  between  the  teacher's 
desk  and  the  preacher's  pulpit?  We  shall 
remember  now,  and  reconstruct  sentences, 
make  the  past  the  present,  that  the  ancient 
warriors  may  live  again  and  lead  our  people 
in  their  long  crusade. 

Then  the  preacher  draws  off  a  brief  preach- 
ing outline,  which  may  cover  a  page  or  two 
of  coarsely  written  catch  words.  Then  the 
sermon  is  laid  away  until  Sunday  morning. 

Sunday  morning  comes,  always  about 
forty-eight  hours  too  soon  ;  with  it  comes  an 
early  breakfast,  then  two  or  three  hours  of 
definite  pulpit  preparation.  What  shall  this 
preparation  be  ?  There  are  a  few  men,  I  sup- 
pose, who  must  ever  be  chained  to  a  manu- 
script. They  are  fewer  than  we  sometimes 
imagine.  Our  people  would  usually  rather 
have  us  read  sermons  well  prepared  than 
have  us  deliver  without  manuscript  sermons 
which  we  should  be  ashamed  to  put  into 
manuscript ;  but  there  is  no  question  that 
they  prefer  a  good  sermon  without  manu- 
script to  an  equally  good  sermon  with  manu- 
script. For  most  of  us  the  question  resolves 
itself  into  this :  Are  the  two  or  three  hours 


82  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

needful  for  specific  pulpit  preparation  worth 
the  investment?  In  ninety  cases  out  of  a 
hundred  the  time  so  spent  yields  dividends 
of  priceless  value. 

The  pulpit  preparation  is  made,  not  from 
the  manuscript,  but  from  the  preaching  out- 
line. There  is  no  conscious  memorization  of 
the  manuscript  material,  though  naturally 
phrases,  sometimes  sentences  and  even  whole 
paragraphs  may  be  uttered  as  previously 
written.  But  that  morning  in  his  study  the 
preacher  sees  them  all.  There  is  the  young 
girl,  with  eager  questioning  eyes,  there  the 
young  man  who  is  fighting  the  half  lost  fight 
of  virtue,  there  the  grocer  whose  competitor 
across  the  street  is  underselling  him  and  lying 
about  him.  There  is  the  boarding-house 
keeper  whose  boarders  suddenly,  unreason- 
ably left  her  last  week,  leaving  her  with  a 
house  rent  of  fifty  dollars  to  pay  at  the 
first  of  the  month.  So  the  preacher  thinks 
through  his  message  for  his  people.  Then 
ten  minutes'  walk  in  God's  out-of-doors,  then 
a  few  moments  when  with  God  the  preacher 
shares  the  silence  of  eternity,  then  to  the 
pulpit. 

But  right  here  I  am  interrupted.  A 
preacher  tells  me,  "  Man,  I  have  to  teach  a 
men's  Bible  Class  immediately  before  the 
morning  service."     I   answer,    "I  beg  your 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        83 

pardon,  but  you  do  not."  If  you  teach  a 
class  before  the  morning  service,  you  are 
selling  your  preacher's  birthright,  I  will  not 
say  for  a  teacher's  mess  of  pottage,  but  sell- 
ing it  to  your  great  harm  and  loss. 

Into  the  pulpit  the  preacher  may  or  may 
not  carry  his  preaching  notes.  To  some 
men  such  notes  bring  embarrassment,  to 
some  they  bring  just  the  needed  peace  and 
self-control.  We  probably  shall  not  refer  to 
them  at  all  in  the  course  of  the  sermon,  but 
they  are  there,  telling  us  that  no  crying  baby, 
no  fainting  woman,  no  fire-engine  siren, 
need  disturb  the  flow  of  sermonic  thought. 

The  hymns  were  chosen  before  the  Sab- 
bath ;  they  harmonize  with  the  preacher's 
thought  and  the  temper  of  the  sermon.  The 
Scripture  reading  leads  up  to  or  illustrates 
the  idea  to  be  developed.  The  prayer 
was  thought  out  in  the  week  time,  for  the 
preacher  would  feel  ashamed  to  speak  to 
God  in  words  less  thoughtful  than  the  words 
he  speaks  to  men.  The  choirmaster  has 
been  gently  but  firmly  reminded  that  the 
sermon  is  not  the  servant  of  the  choir  music, 
but  that  the  choir  music  is  the  servant  of  the 
service.  The  choir  has  been  courteously 
informed  that  the  choir  gallery  is  not  a 
whispering  gallery. 

Then  the  sermon.     The  whole  power  of  a 


84  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

kindled  personality  is  at  work,  not  to  recall 
thoughts,  words,  phrases,  paragraphs,  but  to 
get  God's  message  into  the  hearts  and  lives 
of  God's  people.  Most  instances  of  poor 
delivery  seem  to  be  instances  of  inadequate 
preparation.  '*  Nothing,"  says  one,  "  is  more 
certain  than  that  the  man  who  has  learned 
early  the  right  modulation  of  the  voice,  and 
has  learned  to  be  content  with  those  simple 
gestures  that  are  natural  and  dignified,  has 
mastered  what  is  fundamental  in  pulpit 
oratory."  Some  instances  of  poor  delivery 
are  not  due  to  inadequate  preparation  but 
to  lack  of  fire.  It  has  been  said  of  Martin 
Luther  that  he  never  did  anything  well  until 
he  was  angry.  I  know  laymen  who  would 
gladly  insult  their  preacher,  if  only  he  would 
get  really  "  mad  "  at  something,  some  one, 
anything,  any  one.  At  any  rate  in  our 
preaching  there  will  always  be  the  note  of 
urgency,  of  crisis,  if  you  will.  "You  can't 
step  twice  into  the  same  river."  No,  and 
you  cannot  speak  twice  to  the  same  audi- 
ence. Even  granted  that  the  people  com- 
posing the  congregation  Sunday  after  Sunday 
are  called  by  the  same  names,  the  experiences 
of  the  week  have  made  them  difTerent  people. 
"  This,  this  is  my  last  chance  to  speak  to  these 
men  and  women  and  boys  and  girls,  God's 
children." 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon        85 

"But  I  find  myself  continually  harassed 
by  the  fear  of  men."  Do  you  recall  the  re- 
mark of  Campbell  Morgan?  He  said  that 
he  never  felt  any  nervousness  in  the  pulpit. 
His  friend  Thomas  Champness  replied, 
**  Neither  do  I,  and  the  reason  is  the  same 
both  in  your  case  and  mine, — we  have  no 
reputation  to  lose."  May  not  some  such 
thought  help  us?  The  preacher  is  but  a 
voice.  Horton  quotes  what  he  calls  the 
grand  but  singular  petition  of  the  Moravian 
liturgy :  "  From  the  unhappy  desire  of  be- 
coming great,  Good  Lord,  deliver  me."  The 
herald  has  no  concern  for  his  reputation.  He 
is  so  identified  with  his  king  and  his  mes- 
sage that  he  fears  the  face  of  no  man. 

But  the  most  courageous  preacher  may 
well  fear  the  face  of  the  clock.  The  most 
vicious  sermon  may  have  one  virtue:  it 
may  be  brief.  How  many  of  us  seem  to 
hope  by  the  murder  of  time  to  win  im- 
mortality 1  I  remember  one  theologue  who 
was  gently  criticized  for  preaching  for  fifty 
minutes.  He  replied,  **  Gunsaulus  does." 
The  answer  was  upon  our  tongue,  but  we 
did  not  wish  to  be  rude.  "  A  hundred  ser- 
mons," says  Fenelon,  **  are  too  long,  where 
one  is  too  short."  There  are  others  besides 
Daniel's  Antiochus  who  wear  out  the  saints 
of  the  most  high.     A  half  hour  to  raise  the 


86  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

dead  ?  Precisely  that ;  but  if  a  half  hour 
does  not  suffice  to  raise  the  dead,  fifty 
minutes  will  infallibly  seal  the  tomb. 

The  preacher  had  hoped  to  raise  the  dead, 
but  after  he  has  pronounced  the  benediction, 
and  the  organ  has  begun  the  postlude,  as  the 
people  stroll  out  into  the  light  of  common 
day,  he  can  seldom  detect  a  motion  of  the 
risen  life.  Has  his  word  quickened  his 
people  ?  He  may  hear  that  one  man  re- 
peated for  himself  what  R.  L.  Stevenson 
once  wrote,  "  I  have  been  to  church  and  am 
not  depressed."  Well,  that  is  something. 
He  may  chance  to  hear  of  a  woman  who 
said  that  after  the  sermon  she  felt  as  did  the 
woman  who  was  accustomed  to  listen  to 
Beecher:  **When  I  left  Plymouth  the  sun 
was  always  shining,  whatever  the  weather." 
More  than  this  the  preacher  may  never 
know.  But  those  who  have  honestly  tried  to 
clothe  the  old  message  with  the  new  form 
dictated  by  their  times  and  their  individuality, 
may  be  well  assured  that  they  have  wrought 
with  God  in  His  creative.  His  recreative,  work. 

**  And  ofttimes  cometh  our  wise  Lord  God, 

Master  of  every  trade, 
And  tells  them  tales  of  daily  toil. 

Of  Edens  newly  made, 
And  they  rise  to  their  feet  as  He  passes  by, 

Gentlemen  unafraid." 


Ill 

The  Preacher  and  His  Bible 


in 

THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  BBLE 

THE  preacher  may  be  a  student  of 
many  books.  He  must  be  the 
master  of  one  book,  the  Bible. 
Of  this  book  there  is  to-day  an  astound- 
ing popular  ignorance.  Professor  Phelps  of 
Yale  remarks,  ''  If  all  the  undergraduates  of 
America  could  be  placed  in  one  room,  and 
tested  by  a  common  examination  on  the 
supposedly  familiar  stories  of  the  Old 
Testament,  I  mean  on  such  instances  as 
Adam,  Eve,  the  Garden  of  Eden,  Noah, 
Samson,  David  and  Goliath,  Moses  .and 
Pharaoh,  the  result  would  be  a  magnificent 
contribution  to  American  humour.  The  ex- 
perience of  teachers  with  other  books  is 
almost  never  the  same,  but  ask  any  teacher 
in  the  United  States  what  luck  he  has  with  the 
Bible,  and  he  throws  up  his  hands  in  despair. 
I  inquired  of  one  fine  young  specimen  of 
American  manhood  what  he  thought  Shake- 
speare meant  by  the  phrase,  *Here  feel  we 
not  the  penalty  of  Adam,*  and  he  replied, 
*  It  was  the  mark  put  on  Adam  for  having 
slain  his  brother.'     To  another  lad  who  was 

89 


90  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

every  inch  a  gentleman,  I  put  the  question, 

*  Explain  the  line,  *'  Or  memorize  another 
Golgotha,' ' '  and  his  face  became  a  blank.  I 
came  to  his  relief  with  the  remark,  *  Golgotha 
is  a  New  Testament  reference.'  A  light  of 
intelligence    illumined   his   handsome   face : 

*  It  was  Goliath.' "  Professor  Phelps  de- 
clares :  **  The  ignorance  of  college  students 
of  Biblical  literature  is  universal,  profound 
and  complete." 

I  suppose  that  the  Freshmen  of  a  widely 
known  Christian  college,  which  automatically 
rejects  as  candidates  for  the  Freshman  class 
the  lowest  third  of  the  graduating  class  of 
any  high  school,  may  fairly  represent  the 
culture  of  our  intelligent  Christian  homes. 
One  is  continually  impressed  by  the  prevail- 
ing ignorance.  I  asked  a  question  regard- 
ing the  fate  of  John  the  Baptist  and  got  this 
written  reply  :  *•  Herod,  a  wicked  king  disUk- 
ing  John  the  Baptist,  had  a  large  supper  and 
while  all  were  there,  John  said,  *  Whatever  ye 
ask  it  shall  be  given  you.'  And  Herod's 
daughter,  following  her  mother's  advice, 
asked  for  his  head  upon  a  platter.  He  would 
not  reject  her,  thus  showing  his  strong  faith 
in  God."  I  do  not  say  that  this  is  typical 
I  can  hardly  say  it  is  exceptional. 

After  numberless  experiences  of  this  kind, 
one  trembles  to  think  what  would  happen 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible  91 

should  an  average  Freshman  Bible  examina- 
tion be  given  to  an  average  Sunday  con- 
gregation. "  I  will  confess,"  says  one  of  our 
great  English  preachers,  "  that  one  of  the 
mistakes  of  my  ministry  has  been  my  failure 
to  preach  with  the  remembrance  of  my 
hearers'  disuse  of  the  Scripture."  Casual 
Biblical  allusions  which  we  assume  to  be 
familiar  to  our  audiences  pass  them  by  as 
doth  the  idle  wind. 

Consider  the  significance  of  this  prevailing 
ignorance.  It  means  that  our  people  are 
unfamiliar  with  the  supreme  literature  of  the 
world.  It  is  a  literature  supreme  in  the 
sublimity  of  its  style.  Its  style  has  well  been 
called  the  style  of  the  heavenly  court.  Let 
me  read  you  a  few  lines : 

*'  O  thou  that  tellest  good  tidings  to  Zion,  get 

thee  up  on  a  high  mountain ; 
O  thou  that  tellest  good  tidings  to  Jerusalem, 

lift  up  thy  voice  with  strength ; 
Lift  it  up,  be  not  afraid ;  say  unto  the  cities 

of  Judah,  Behold  your  God." 

Think  over  again  the  Twenty-third  Psalm, 
**  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd ; "  or  the  first 
eighteen  verses  of  John,  **  In  the  beginning 
was  the  Word  and  the  Word  was  with  God 
and  the  Word  was  God."  Read  again  the 
eighth  of  Romans,  "Who  shall  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  God?"     Read  again  the 


92  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

second  of  Philippians,  "  Have  this  mind  in 
you  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus,'*  or  the 
seventh  of  the  Revelation,  "  These  are  they 
that  come  out  of  the  great  tribulation,  and 
they  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Therefore 
are  they  before  the  throne  of  God  ;  and  they 
serve  him  day  and  night  in  his  temple :  and 
he  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall  spread  his 
tabernacle  over  them.  They  shall  hunger 
no  more,  neither  thirst  any  more ;  neither 
shall  the  sun  strike  upon  them,  nor  any  heat : 
for  the  Lamb  that  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne  shall  be  their  shepherd,  and  shall 
guide  them  unto  fountains  of  waters  of  life : 
and  God  shall  wipe  away  every  tear  from 
their  eyes.''  I  do  not  read  language  like  that 
anywhere  outside  the  covers  of  this  book. 

Again,  it  is  a  literature  supreme  in  the 
variety  and  the  unity  of  its  contents.  Here 
are  sixty-six  books :  history,  prophecy,  legend, 
parable,  allegory,  philosophy,  proverbs,  fa- 
miliar correspondence,  masterpieces  of  public 
discourse,  homilies  ;  books  written  at  various 
times  in  a  period  measured  by  centuries, 
gathered  together  and  called  The  Book.  The 
Book  was  not  made  one  by  the  fiat  of  councils. 
For  all  its  variety  the  Book  is  organically  one, 
one  with  the  unity  of  a  common  purpose,  the 
unity  of  a  common  Presence. 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible  93 

The  Bible  is  a  literature  supreme  in  the 
universality  of  its  appeal.  Take  a  single 
story,  that  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  Read  that 
story  to  an  audience  in  a  street  mission  in 
Singapore  or  Hong  Kong.  The  hard-faced, 
soft-hearted  sailor,  the  almond-eyed  mer- 
chant, the  woman  whom  the  world  has 
abandoned,  the  waif  of  the  street,  the  stu- 
dent who  has  come  from  the  West  to  learn 
the  lore  of  the  East, — there  is  not  one  of 
them  whom  that  single  story  does  not  find 
at  the  deepest  depths  of  his  being. 

Again  the  Bible  is  a  literature  supreme  in 
its  power.  It  is  the  most  powerful  book  in 
the  world.  A  single  verse  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  first,  led  a  young  Japanese  student, 
Neesima,  to  the  one  God,  towards  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Christian  University  of  the  Do- 
shisha.  Of  a  single  book  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment we  read,  "  The  psalms  have  written  a 
new  history  for  themselves  in  the  experience 
of  many  Christian  men  and  women,  and  in 
some  of  the  memorable  movements  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  world.  What  a  wonder- 
ful story  they  could  tell  if  we  could  gather  it 
all  from  lonely  chambers,  from  sufTering  sick- 
beds, from  the  brink  of  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  from  scafiolds  and  from 
fiery  piles !  " 

To  speak  of  the  Old  Testament  as  a  whole : 


94  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

this  was  the  Bible  of  John  the  Baptist.  From 
his  favourite  prophecy  he  took  the  words 
which  expressed  his  great  commission.  The 
Old  Testament  was  the  Bible  of  Jesus.  Here 
the  Master  found  His  answers  to  the  Tempter 
and  the  warrant  for  His  work  of  mercy.  From 
the  Old  Testament,  indeed,  from  one  of  the 
prophecies  now  most  completely  forgotten, 
Peter  wrought  his  apologetic  at  Pentecost. 
Paul  regarded  the  same  Old  Testament  as 
the  oracles  of  God.  The  dry  system  of  laws 
of  which  we  think  almost  with  aversion,  he 
counted  a  slave  to  lead  men  to  the  school 
of  Christ.  It  was  the  Old  Testament  which 
taught  the  world  that  **  righteousness  is  sal- 
vation." 

Turn  for  a  moment  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  New.  One  verse  of  that  little 
book  caught  the  eye  of  a  young  debauchee 
named  Augustine,  and  transformed  him  into 
a  preacher  who  became  at  once  the  father  of 
Romanism  and  of  Protestantism.  One  verse 
of  that  New  Testament  shook  from  the  soul 
of  Luther  the  shackles  of  Romanism,  sent 
him  forth,  a  free  man,  to  set  free  the  western 
world.  Take  from  the  New  Testament  a 
single  story,  that  of  Jesus,  and  you  take  from 
men  the  knowledge  of  Him  who  hath  brought 
life  and  immortality  out  into  the  light. 

It  is  needless  to  speak  of  the  New  Testa- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible  95 

ment  as  a  whole.  William  Wilberforce  tells 
us  that  once  on  a  long  journey  he  read 
through  the  New  Testament,  and  from  the 
perusal  arose,  a  new  creature.  A  Hindu  well 
said,  "  If  I  were  a  missionary,  I  would  not 
argue,  I  would  simply  say,  *  Here  is  the  New 
Testament,  read  that.'  " 

If  we  think  for  a  moment  of  the  entire 
Bible  we  remind  ourselves  that  it  has  puri- 
fied languages,  it  has  created  literatures. 
**  The  German  language,"  says  one,  "  is 
moulded  by  the  Bible."  The  Bible  has  been 
the  poor  man's  friend,  the  handbook  of  democ- 
racy. We  can  scarcely  quote  too  often  the 
words  of  Green  :  *'  No  greater  moral  change 
ever  passed  over  a  nation  than  passed  over 
England  during  the  years  which  parted  the 
middle  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  from  the 
meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament.  England 
became  the  people  of  a  book,  and  that  book 
was  the  Bible.  .  .  .  Everywhere  its  words 
kindled  a  startling  enthusiasm.  .  .  .  Sun- 
day after  Sunday,  day  after  day,  the  crowds 
that  gathered  round  Bonner's  Bibles  in  the 
nave  of  St.  Paul's,  or  the  family  group  that 
hung  on  the  words  of  the  Geneva  Bible  in 
the  devotional  exercises  at  home  were  leav- 
ened with  a  new  literature.  .  .  .  Eliza- 
beth might  silence  or  tune  the  pulpits ;  but 
it  was  impossible  for  her  to  silence  or  tune 


96  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

the  great  preachers  of  justice,  and  mercy  and 
truth  who  spoke  from  the  book  she  had  again 
opened  for  her  people.  ...  A  new  con- 
ception of  Hfe  and  man  superseded  the  old. 
A  new  moral  and  religious  impulse  spread 
through  every  class.  .  .  .  The  whole  na- 
tion became,  in  fact,  a  Church."  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  .lawmakers  have  all  gone  to  school 
to  the  Bible.  The  heretics  of  yesterday, 
Waldo,  Wyclifle,  Huss,  gained  their  mes- 
sages from  the  Book.  The  Pilgrims  and  the 
Puritans  came  across  the  sea  to  build  a  new 
world  upon  the  old  Book.  It  is  a  true  word  : 
*'  The  Hebrews  did  not  make  a  civilization, 
but  they  made  a  book  which  has  sent  other 
nations  to  making  civilizations."  I  have 
read  somewhere  that  the  Bible  created  the 
idea  of  humanity.  It  is  certain  that  the  great 
workers  for  humanity  have  been  men  of  the 
Book.  In  Africa,  the  Bible  was  Livingstone's 
one  trusted  guide.  Paton,  Morrison,  Spur- 
geon,  Brooks,  Drummond,  men  of  widely 
differing  points  of  view,  were  all  men  of  the 
Book.  Of  Lincoln  it  has  been  said,  "  He 
built  up  his  entire  reading  on  his  early  study 
of  the  Bible ;  he  had  mastered  it  absolutely, 
mastered  it  as  later  he  mastered  very  few 
books."  An  oriental  book,  it  has  worked  its 
way  into  western  life.  Become  a  western 
book,  it  now  goes  back  to  the  East  to  win  do- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible  97 

minion.  Wherever  the  Book  goes,  it  makes 
liars  honest,  libertines  pure,  cowards  brave. 
Professor  Huxley  has  remarked,  "  I  have 
been  seriously  perplexed  to  know  how  the 
religious  feeling  which  is  the  essential  basis 
of  conduct  can  be  kept  up  without  the  use  of 
the  Bible." 

The  Emperor  Diocletian  made  a  deter- 
mined efTort  to  destroy  all  the  copies  of  the 
Scripture  in  his  realm.  As  one  thinks  of 
the  influence  of  the  Bible  upon  the  history 
of  the  world,  one  is  appalled  at  the  thought 
of  what  would  have  happened  had  he  suc- 
ceeded. And  yet  Spurgeon's  words  have 
sting  in  them,  "  The  Bible  is  in  every  house, 
but  in  many  the  dust  on  it  is  so  thick  that 
we  might  write  on  it :  Damnation."  If  dust 
gathers  upon  the  Bibles  which  lie  in  such 
saintly  but  deathlike  repose  on  the  lower 
shelves  of  the  centre  tables  of  our  people, 
Diocletian  will  achieve  his  desire  without  the 
shedding  of  blood,  always  a  disagreeable 
necessity. 

Along  with  the  amazing  ignorance  of  the 
Bible  which  still  prevails,  there  has  developed 
within  the  past  few  years  an  amazing  inter- 
est in  the  Bible.  A  report  compiled  Decem- 
ber 7,  1913,  states  that  during  the  preceding 
year,  there  had  been  printed  28,000,000 
copies  of  the  Scripture  and  of  portions  of  the 


98  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

Scripture.  About  half  of  these  copies  were 
in  English,  the  remainder  in  five  hundred 
languages  and  dialects  of  the  world.  Add 
to  this  the  number  of  commentaries  upon  the 
Scriptures,  the  number  of  Sabbath  School 
and  other  printed  discussions  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  quantity  of  literature  is  simply 
enormous.  The  life  of  the  average  book  is 
not  more  than  two  or  four  years ;  then  it  is 
dead  "  beyond  all  hope  of  resurrection." 
Much  of  the  material  of  the  Bible  was  written 
more  than  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago. 
All  of  it  was  written  more  than  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  ago.  To-day  it  is  the  best  selling 
book  in  the  world.  I  do  not  overestimate 
the  value  of  such  statistics.  I  recall  Mr. 
Dooley's  discussion  of  the  problem  :  "  Says 
I,  *  Th'  only  books  in  me  libr'y  is  the  Bible 
an*  Shakespeare,'  says  I.  *  They're  gr-reat 
f'r  ye,'  says  she ;  *  so  bully  f'r  th'  style. 
D'ye  read  thim  all  th'  time  ? '  she  says.  *  I 
niver  read  thim,'  says  I ;  '  I  use  thim  f'r  pur- 
poses iv  definse.  I  have  niver  read  them, 
but  I'll  niver  read  annything  else  till  I  have 
read  thim,'  I  says.  *  They  shtand  between 
me  an'  all  modhren  lithrachoor,'  says  I. 
*  I've  built  thim  up  into  a  kind  iv  break- 
wather,'  I  says,  *  an'  I  set  behind  it  calm  and 
contint,  while  Hall  Caine  rages  without,' 
says  I."     But  grant  the  peril,  the  statistics 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible  99 

remain   significant   of  an   extraordinary   in- 
terest in  the  Bible. 

One  of  the  striking  phenomena  of  our 
student  world  is  the  increase  of  voluntary 
Bible  study.  Among  the  students  of  the 
colleges  of  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
approximately  one  hundred  thousand  women 
and  fifty  thousand  men  are  engaged  in  vol- 
untary Bible  study  in  groups.  The  Summer 
Bible  Conferences  have  multiplied.  Under 
the  statesmanlike  leadership  of  the  Associa- 
tions of  young  men  and  young  women,  there 
have  been  brought  together  for  intensive 
Bible  study  thousands  of  those  who  are  to  be 
leaders  of  the  leaders  of  our  country. 

The  organized  Bible  Class  movement  has 
spread  like  wild-fire.  Elaborate  courses  for 
normal  instruction  are  now  being  offered  by 
city  Sunday-School  Associations.  Some  of 
our  states  are  giving  high  school  credit  for 
certain  specified  Biblical  work  done  in  the 
Sabbath  School.  The  Gary  plan  with  its 
various  modifications  is  likely  to  give  new 
impetus  to  Bible  study  among  our  boys  and 
girls.  Warren  H.  Wilson  speaks  with  au- 
thority of  the  Sabbath  School,  which  of  course 
centres  its  work  upon  the  teaching  of  the 
Bible  :  "  If  only  the  teachers  and  ministers 
realized  the  value  of  the  Sunday-school  and 
its  acceptance  with  the  people,  there  would 


loo  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

be  needed  no  other  machinery  for  building 
the  country  community." 

Now  there  is  danger  in  this  very  revival  of 
interest  in  the  Bible.  An  unenlightened  in- 
terest is  not  so  dangerous  as  utter  ignorance. 
Paul  was  able  to  rejoice  if  Christ  were  pro- 
claimed whether  in  truth  or  in  pretense.  But 
when  one  remembers  that  Luther's  hostile  at- 
titude towards  Copernicus  was  determined 
by  his  attitude  towards  Scripture,  when 
one  remembers  the  witchcraft  delusion  of 
Salem,  and  all  the  crimes  that  have  been 
committed  in  obedience  to  Scripture,  one 
notes  with  chilled  enthusiasm  certain  aspects 
of  the  revived  interest  in  the  Bible.  A  new 
interest  in  the  Bible  leads  one  man  to  be- 
come a  Mormon,  another  to  become  a  dis- 
ciple of  Dowie.  Bible  classes  organized 
under  the  auspices  of  certain  schools  of 
thought  are  likely  to  lead  to  darkness  and  to 
ditches  as  often  as  to  daylight  and  the  great 
ascent. 

Has  not  the  preacher  come  to  his  kingdom 
for  such  a  time  as  this  ?  The  preacher  does 
not  have  to  fight  for  his  place.  He  is  uni- 
versally recognized  as  the  authorized  inter- 
preter of  Scripture.  He  is  supposed  to  be  a 
Biblical  expert.  In  this  field  he  has  no  com- 
petition to  fear.  The  Bible  is  the  preacher's 
Book.      A    spectator    sometimes    wonders 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        lOi 

whether  we  preachers  have  quite  appreciated 
our  strategic  position,  wonders  whether  we 
might  not  declare  a  closed  season  for  pulpit 
discussions  of  the  latest  novel.  Professor 
Moulton,  a  critic  of  literature,  is  able  to  pack 
a  church  even  on  a  prayer-meeting  night. 
The  people  come  to  hear  him  read  the  Bible 
in  a  way  that  gives  sense.  If  we  can  inter- 
pret Browning,  Milton,  Winston  Churchill, 
Ernest  Poole,  well  and  good.  But  if  we  use 
them  to  draw  our  audiences  and  to  preach 
our  sermons  for  us,  are  we  not  silently  giving 
notice  to  the  community,  **  In  these  days  of 
popular  ignorance  of  the  Bible,  yet  increasing 
interest  in  the  Bible,  in  these  days  of  rampant 
and  widely  advertised  misinterpretations  of 
the  Bible,  I  believe  it  is  impossible  to  interest 
this  community  in  the  one  book  concerning 
which  I  am  supposed  to  speak  with  expert 
knowledge  and  authority "  ?  Do  not  the 
people  of  the  community  read  that  silent  no- 
tice, when  they  read  our  advertisement  of 
what  we  regard  as  a  more  attractive  program 
than  that  of  Biblical  preaching  ? 

Why  do  we  not  possess  our  possessions? 
I  believe  one  reason  to  be  this  :  All  of  us  as 
preachers  are  afEected,  infected  by  the  Ameri- 
can tendency  to  change.  With  childlike  sim- 
plicity we  stake  our  success  upon  method. 


102  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

The  method  fails,  it  must  be  wrong  ;  we  must 
try  another  method.  We  tried  the  Boys' 
Scouts.  They  **  petered  out."  We  tried  the 
Knights  of  King  Arthur.  We  gave  up  that 
organization.  Why?  Was  there  anything 
wrong  about  the  method  ?  There  may  have 
been  everything  right  about  the  method. 
No  method  will  work,  unless  there  is  a  man 
to  work  the  method.  We  tried  to  preach 
Biblical  sermons,  but  the  people  were  not  in- 
terested. Was  there  anything  wrong  about 
the  method  ?  The  prime  necessity  is  not  a 
new  method,  but  a  new  conscience,  a  new 
confidence,  a  new  enthusiasm,  a  new  man. 
Old  things  are  passed  away,  behold  they  are 
become  new. 

In  parenthesis  it  ought  perhaps  to  be  said 
that  there  are  doubtless  circumstances  that 
will  beat  any  man.  It  is  to  be  questioned 
whether  a  man  can  successfully  preach  Bib- 
lical sermons  or  any  other  kind  of  sermons 
in  a  church  which  ought  to  be  burned  to  the 
ground  in  the  interest  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
It  ought  also  to  be  added  that  most  of  us  are 
victims  of  **  the  lust  for  statistics."  I  would 
not  indeed  think  that  a  minister  proved  his 
spirituality  or  preaching  power  by  emptying 
his  church,  but  are  we  not  all  greatly  indebted 
to  Dr.  Jefferson  for  insisting  on  the  difference 
between  getting  an  audience  and  building  a 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        103 

church  ?  I  am  persuaded  that  in  trying  to 
win  an  audience  a  man  may  undermine  his 
church  and  lose  his  preacher's  soul. 

But  I  suspect  that  our  failure  to  possess  our 
possessions  is  largely  due  to  the  influence  of 
modern  Biblical  scholarship.  With  cheerful 
heart  and  without  reservation,  we  used  to 
quote  as  equally  authoritative  verses  of  Scrip- 
ture wherever  found,  in  Ecclesiastes  or  Ephe- 
sians,  in  Esther  the  book  of  the  bigot  or  in 
the  Logia  of  Jesus.  We  used  to  treat  as  of 
equal  historicity  the  story  of  Noah's  voyage 
in  the  ark  and  the  story  of  Paul's  voyage  in 
the  ship  of  Adramyttium.  We  used  to  delve 
into  and  delight  in  word  studies.  Our  task 
was  to  harmonize  passages  of  Scripture,  so 
as  to  frame  a  system  of  Biblical  theology, 
which  we  thought  was  preachable  whether  it 
was  rational  or  not.  If  some  passages  abso- 
lutely refused  to  submit  to  our  treatment,  we 
allegorized  them,  and  regarded  the  allegory 
as  a  demonstration  rather  than  an  illustration. 

In  our  study  of  prophetism  we  emphasized 
prediction  as  its  chief  element,  failing  to 
realize  the  truth  of  the  word  of  J.  M.  P.  Smith  : 
"The  prophets  insisted  constantly  that  the 
present  was  the  future  in  the  making,  and 
that  there  could  not  possibly  be  any  divorce 
between  the  two.  Prediction  then  was  to 
some  extent  a  homiletical  method  for  achiev- 


104  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

ing  moral  and  spiritual  results  in  the  present." 
One  needs  but  to  read  the  libretto  of  the  ora- 
torio of  the  "  Messiah,"  and  then  in  the  light 
of  modern  scholarship,  to  read  the  texts  which 
Handel  used,  to  perceive  what  a  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  preacher's  point  of  view. 
We  had  been  wont  to  look  out  upon  the  future 
through  the  windows  of  the  Aposde  Paul,  and 
seldom  noticed  that  the  windows  of  John 
offered  somewhat  different  vistas,  nor  did  we 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  windows  of  both 
alike  were  stained  here  and  there  by  the 
radiance  of  the  current  apocalyptic. 

Biblical  scholarship  has  called  to  its  aid  all 
history,  archaeology,  comparative  literature 
and  religion,  the  psychology  of  religion,  a 
new  world  view.  Questions  have  paralyzed 
our  hitherto  dogmatic  assertions.  The  censer 
bearer  in  Christ's  triumph  train  becomes  not 
seldom  the  herald,  to  use  Mathews'  phrase, 
*'  of  the  good  news  of  pentateuchal  analysis  "  ; 
the  crusader  becomes  the  critic ;  and  you  re- 
call the  definidon  of  the  critic,  "  A  critic  is  the 
valet  who  brushes  the  clothes  of  the  truth." 
I  am  bound  to  add  with  all  respect  that  often 
the  valet  bungles  his  job,  and  frays  or  soils 
the  clothes.  The  man  who  has  supposed 
himself  to  be  breathing  the  free  airs  on  the 
mountain  top  of  truth  now  breathes  and 
breathes  out  the  airs  of  a  spiritual  dissecting- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        105 

room.  I  do  not  say  that  this  is  the  charac- 
teristic influence  of  the  historical  criticism.  I 
do  say  that  upon  many  men  it  has  exerted 
this  influence.  But  surely,  brethren,  these 
things  ought  not,  need  not,  so  to  be.  Surely 
we  betray  a  singular  lack  of  faith  in  God  and 
in  His  word. 

Suppose  we  think  for  a  moment  with  a  man 
who  has  just  come  under  the  influence  of 
modern  Biblical  scholarship,  an  influence 
which  indeed  no  man  can  escape.  Let  us  see 
what  encouragements  there  are  for  this  man 
as  he  faces  the  facts. 

First  comes  to  the  preacher's  remembrance 
the  glorious  ancient  word  carved  on  the  front 
wall  of  the  New  York  Library,  '*But  above 
all  things  truth  beareth  away  the  victory." 
Then  comes  to  his  remembrance  the  word 
of  Huxley,  *'  Science  seems  to  me  to  teach  in 
the  highest  and  strongest  manner  the  great 
truth  which  is  embodied  in  the  Christian  con- 
ception of  entire  surrender  to  the  will  of  God. 
Sit  down  before  fact  as  a  little  child,  be  pre- 
pared to  give  up  every  preconceived  notion, 
follow  humbly  wherever  and  to  whatever 
abysses  nature  leads,  or  you  shall  learn  noth- 
ing." And  the  preacher  determines  to  sit 
down  before  fact,  if  only  he  can  find  it,  be- 
fore fact  as  a  little  child. 

Then  for  his  sober  encouragement  in  meet- 


io6  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

ing  facts  comes  that  word  of  George  Adam 
Smith.  We  are  reminded  that  he  looked 
through  the  vast  correspondence  of  Henry 
Drummond ;  that  *'  some  letters  came  from 
the  silence  and  loneliness  of  the  far  margins 
of  our  world,  some  came  from  the  centres 
of  civilization.  One  and  all  told  how  the 
literal  acceptance  of  the  Bible  was  what  had 
driven  them  away  from  religion/'  He  writes, 
**  It  is  astonishing  how  many  of  the  questions 
had  to  do  with  the  Old  Testament,  with  its 
discrepancies,  its  rigorous  laws,  its  pitiless 
tempers,  its  open  treatment  of  sexual  ques- 
tions, the  atrocities  related  by  history  and 
sanctioned  by  law."  The  preacher  recalls 
from  his  own  observation  more  than  one 
instance  of  the  tragic  recoil  from  literalism 
to  infidelity.  Again  the  preacher  takes  heart 
of  hope  as  he  remembers  that  while  modern 
scholarship  makes  it  almost  unendurable  to 
read  certain  old  preachers  of  the  second  rank, 
the  old  preachers  of  the  first  rank,  men  who 
knew  nothing  of  our  higher  criticism,  speak 
to  us  still  with  an  intense,  vital,  exigent  pres- 
ent day  appeal  and  power.  The  preacher 
then  considers  the  notable  fact  brought  out 
by  Dr.  Bosworth  that  alone  of  the  religions 
of  the  world,  Christianity  has  dared  to  sub- 
ject its  sacred  books  to  the  most  searching 
scrutiny.     How  fine  it  is  to  think  that  we 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        107 

are  not  afraid  to  be  investigated.  He  gathers 
up  the  positive  results  of  this  criticism.  For 
example,  the  prophets  who  were  buried  in 
nicely  whitewashed  tombs  come  forth  to  live 
again,  strong  men,  human  men,  heroes  by 
the  grace  of  God,  men  who  long  to  share 
with  us  their  visions  of  God  and  God's  will, 
men  who  would  tell  us  how  to  fight  our 
beautiful  fight.  Think  of  the  fact  that  in  the 
study  of  Jonah  we  find  not  so  much  the 
opportunity  to  discuss  the  capacity  of  a 
whale's  belly,  as  the  opportunity  to  disclose 
the  gospel  before  the  Gospel,  to  enter  into 
the  prophet's  thought  of  the  length  and 
breadth  and  height  and  depth  of  the  love  of 
God. 

The  preacher  remembers  that  this  same 
Biblical  scholarship  has  given  back  to  us  the 
historical  Jesus,  whom  we  were  in  danger  of 
losing.  A  writer  calls  our  attention  to  the 
fact  that  "  every  life  of  Christ  worth  reading 
outside  the  Gospels  has  been  written  since 
1835,  that  therefore  our  generation  knows 
the  historical  life  of  Christ  more  perfectly 
than  any  generation  since  Christ  was  on 
earth,  can  judge  more  accurately  and  inter- 
pret more  certainly  the  meaning  of  His  every 
act  and  word."  Our  study  of  the  mystery 
cults  helps  us  see  that  Paul  used  terms 
which  his  age  could  understand  in  order  to 


lo8  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

state  what  to  him  was  the  worth  of  Christ. 
Our  study  of  the  Logos  doctrine  helps  us 
see  how  the  writer  of  the  fourth  Gospel  strove 
to  carry  over  the  good  news  of  Jesus  into 
the  atmosphere  of  Greek  culture,  and  sought 
to  state  in  terms  of  the  generation  which  he 
knew,  the  value  of  the  Jesus  whom  he  knew 
and  loved.  The  preacher  is  now  able  to 
gather  up  every  bit  of  broken  light  which 
has  shone  from  God  upon  his  brother  man 
anywhere,  and  is  able  in  turn  to  share  with 
him  the  white  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Our  Biblical  scholarship  has  set  us  free  from 
what  has  been  called  adjectival  Christianity, 
and  has  saved  to  us  a  substantive  Chris- 
tianity which  can  be  preached,  and  a  Bible 
which  needs  no  league  of  defense. 

We  have  often  been  told  that  to  a  great 
life  two  factors  are  essential,  work  and  friend- 
ship. The  real  secret  of  the  power  of  the 
Bible  has  been  this,  that  it  has  introduced 
men  to  the  supreme  work  and  to  the  supreme 
friendships  of  the  world.  Biblical  scholar- 
ship has  not  lost  to  the  Bible  its  secret.  On 
the  contrary,  at  this  moment,  the  Bible  re- 
veals to  us  in  new  and  beautiful  fashion  the 
great  work  and  the  great  friendships. 

Modern  scholarship  has  brought  into  more 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        109 

vivid  light  the  age-long  power  of  the  Bible 
to  introduce  men  to  the  kind  of  work  which 
alone  can  permanently  satisfy  men.  To-day- 
it  calls  to  men,  **  Work  for  the  kingdom  of 
God  :  work  for  the  world-wide  society  of  the 
brotherly  sons  of  God.  That  work  will  bind 
all  the  tasks  of  life  into  one  lifelong  task. 
That  work  will  call  out  your  highest  enthusi- 
asm from  sunrise  to  sunset."  When  a  man 
catches  a  vision  of  the  task  to  which  the  Bible 
and  the  Bible  alone  of  books  introduces  him, 
all  tasks  seem  cheap  and  tawdry,  unless  they 
can  be  subordinated  to,  made  a  part  of  the 
eternal  and  eternally  satisfying  task. 

Modern  scholarship,  as  we  have  said,  has 
only  made  more  obvious  the  persistent  power 
of  the  Bible  to  introduce  men  to  the  great 
friendships  of  the  great  life.  The  Bible  to- 
day welcomes  men  to  the  vital  friendship  of 
Amos,  the  dresser  of  sycomore-trees,  who 
entered  as  it  were  the  Westminster  Abbey 
of  Israel,  to  deliver  his  message  of  God's 
law ;  to  the  friendship  of  Hosea,  who  crossed 
the  threshold  of  his  ruined  home,  to  speak 
to  men  of  the  sin  which  breaks  the  heart  as 
well  as  the  law  of  God.  Alone  of  books,  the 
Bible  is  able  to  acquaint  men  with  Elijah, 
the  man  who  stood  before  Jehovah,  with 
Jeremiah,  the  man  who  looked  up  from  the 
pit  and  saw  the  stars ;  with  Peter,  the  pas- 


no  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

sionate,  disloyal,  Io3^aI  friend  of  Jesus  ;  with 
the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  the  man  who 
leaned  upon  the  Master's  breast  at  supper 
and  stood  by  the  Master  at  the  cross.  Alone 
of  the  books  of  the  world,  the  Bible  is  able 
to  introduce  men  to  a  vital  friendship  with 
God,  and  this  primarily  because  the  Bible 
alone  is  able  to  introduce  men  to  Jesus,  the 
revealer  of  the  Father.  This  is  the  per- 
sistent wonder  of  the  Book,  that  it  can  guide 
the  beggar,  the  peasant,  the  prince,  into  the 
court  of  heaven,  there  to  sit  beside  the  King 
upon  His  throne. 

The  sovereign  power  of  the  Book  is  not  a 
memory.  Nor  will  that  power  pass  with  the 
process  of  the  suns.  No  new  researches  of 
comparative  religion,  no  new  discoveries  or 
pseudo-discoveries  of  archaeologists,  no  news- 
paper announcements  that  Noah  rather  than 
Eve  ate  the  fatal  apple,  can  hurt  the  preacher. 
All  truth  is  his.  Scholarship  serves,  but  no 
longer  scares  him.  The  Lord  Jehovah  hath 
given  him  the  tongue  of  them  that  are  taught 
that  he  may  know  how  to  sustain  with  words 
him  that  is  weary.  He  wakeneth  morning 
by  morning.  He  wakeneth  his  ear  to  hear  as 
they  that  are  taught.  And  the  Lord  Jehovah 
wakens  His  disciple's  ear  most  often  and  most 
surely  with  the  sustaining  and  sympathetic 
words  of  the  Word  of  God. 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        ill 

The  preacher  who  has  come  inevitably  un- 
der the  influence  of  modern  Biblical  scholar- 
ship needs  simply  to  remember  Campbell 
Morgan's  story  :  George  Borrow  when  taken 
by  a  guide  to  see  the  sources  of  the  Severn 
and  the  Wye,  insisted,  not  only  on  seeing, 
but  on  drinking  the  pure  spring  waters.  **  I 
must  drink  deeply  of  these  springs,"  he  said, 
*'  that  I  may  speak  of  them  with  authority." 

What  then  ?  At  all  hazards  let  us  give  to 
our  people  the  Bible.  No  Sunday  service 
need  be  an  absolute  failure  if  the  preacher 
will  read  with  understanding  and  power  the 
great  utterances  of  Scripture.  If  the  evening 
audience  is  small,  the  preacher  may  decide 
to  remove  the  pulpit  from  the  platform, 
transform  his  congregation  into  a  Bible  class, 
with  its  blackboard,  its  mimeographed  out- 
lines, its  Socratic  method.  With  delibera- 
tion the  preacher  may  become  the  teacher. 
It  is  barely  possible  that  a  man  may  decide 
to  combine  into  one  service  of  instruction 
and  inspiration  the  Bible  School  and  the 
preaching  service  of  the  morning.  But 
rather  than  employ  these  somewhat  dubious 
experiments  let  us  be  ambitious  to  be  Biblical 
preachers.  Let  us  heed  the  implied  exhorta- 
tion of  the  words  spoken  of  Frederick  W. 
Robertson,  "  Perhaps  the  first  thing  that 
arrests    our    attention    is    the    distinctively 


112  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

Biblical  quality  of  his  preaching.  He  illus- 
trates most  suggestively  the  fruitfulness  of 
Biblical  study  for  homiletic  use,  furnishes  the 
most  attractive  model  of  effective  Biblical 
method,  and  has  exerted  an  important  in- 
fluence upon  the  best  Biblical  preaching  oi 
our  day." 

Let  us  treat  our  texts  with  honest  reverence. 
Let  us  not  hurry  away  from  them,  as  Cook's 
tourists  from  the  supreme  treasures  of  Euro- 
pean art  galleries,  as  all  of  us  from  the 
infinitely  precious  commonplaces  of  life. 
How  significant  are  the  words  of  Ruskin's 
friend,  who  had  been  asked  to  make  a  visit 
to  Rome  :  "  I  ought  to  go  with  you  to  Rome, 
but  my  difficulty  is  to  appreciate  my  own 
back  garden,  our  copper  beech,  our  weeping 
ash,  our  little  nailed  up  rose  tree,  and  twist- 
ing nailed  up  creepers.  I  think  when  I  have 
finished  with  the  back  garden,  I  will  go  as 
far  as  Rome." 

We  shall  preach  more  expository  sermons. 
Beecher  and  Brooks  both  advocate  this  by 
precept  if  not  by  example.  Jowett  urges  it 
by  example  if  not  by  precept.  In  introducing 
one  sermon  he  says,  "If  I  were  to  repeat  my 
text  this  morning,  I  should  have  to  repeat 
the  whole  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians.  I 
think  it  is  well  that  at  times  we  should  get 
away  from  inspecting  the  individual  flower 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        113 

however  beautiful,  and  even  away  from  the 
wonders  of  the  single  hedgerow,  and  the 
glories  of  the  larger  garden  or  field,  and 
ascending  some  conspicuous  height  contem- 
plate and  comprehend  some  commanding 
landscape.  And  I  think  it  is  well  even  in 
public  worship  that  we  should  occasionally 
get  away  from  the  winsomeness  of  some 
particular  text,  and  climbing  some  available 
height,  survey  a  wide  expanse  of  Christian 
truth  such  as  is  unveiled  to  us  in  one  of  the 
letters  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  I  do  not  think 
that  exercise  was  ever  more  necessary  than 
it  is  to-day." 

By  the  expository  sermon  we  may  do  two 
things  :  We  may  enforce  the  lesson  we  wish  to 
teach,  and  at  the  same  time  do  what  we  sel- 
dom do  in  a  topical  sermon,  we  may  help  our 
people  to  fall  in  love  with  the  Bible  itself.  In 
the  passage  we  propose  to  expound,  we  shall 
seek  one  mother  idea  within  whose  ample 
embrace  all  the  children  ideas  may  be 
gathered,  not  to  fight  but  to  help  each  other. 
We  shall  heed  Horton's  advice,  and  never 
stay  more  than  twelve  months  away  from 
any  portion  of  the  Scripture.  With  our 
people  we  shall  think  of  the  morning  stories 
of  Genesis,  show  their  points  of  similarity  to 
the  stories  of  the  Babylonish  world,  yet  their 
wonderful   superiority.     We   shall   take   the 


114  ^^^  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

story  of  the  fall,  note  the  fidelity  of  the  old 
legend  to  the  permanent  facts  of  life  ;  for  ex- 
ample, the  temptation  which  so  subtly  ap- 
peals to  the  entirely  legitimate  and  laudable 
aspiration  for  self-realization,  the  sin  which 
seeks  comradeship,  but  which  casts  the 
blame  upon  the  fellow  sinner  and  finally  back 
upon  God  Himself, — "The  woman  whom 
^/lou  didst  give  me," — the  sin  which  begets 
fear  and  guilt  and  brings  a  curse  upon  all 
nature  and  all  life.  Occasionally  we  shall 
turn  to  Scriptural  legislation.  We  shall  bid 
our  people  construct  battlements  for  the  roof, 
that  the  place  of  rest  and  of  play  and  of 
prayer  may  be  made  safe.  In  a  brief,  per- 
haps casual  way  we  shall  compare  and  con- 
trast the  Mosaic  Code  with  the  Code  of 
Hammurabi.  We  shall  glory  in  the  fact  that 
God  hath  spoken  unto  the  legislators  not 
alone  of  one  nation.  Every  law  whether  in 
or  out  of  the  Bible,  we  shall  bring  into  the 
presence  of  Jesus,  by  Him  to  be  judged.  If 
our  people  are  inclined  to  emphasize  ex- 
ternals, we  may  lead  them  by  the  way  of  the 
ancient  covenant  past  Jeremiah's  dream  of  a 
new  covenant,  up  to  Jesus'  ratification  of  the 
new  covenant  at  the  Last  Supper,  on  into  the 
life  of  the  new  covenant  as  Paul  reveals  it  in 
II  Corinthians. 

We  shall  spend  much  time  with  the  New 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible         1 15 

Testament  correspondence,  then  swing  back 
into  the  hymn-book  of  the  second  temple,  to 
hear  once  more  the  silver  trumpets  calling  us 
to  worship,  to  see  once  more  the  pilgrims  in 
whose  hearts  are  the  highways  to  Zion.  For 
a  while  we  shall  sit  down  with  Job,  as  he 
studies  with  eyes  washed  clean  by  tears  the 
problem  of  his  pain.  We  shall  listen  to 
Koheleth  as  he  concludes  that  that  which  is 
crooked  can  never  become  straight,  that  there 
is  nothing  better  for  a  man  than  that  he 
should  eat  and  drink  and  make  his  soul 
enjoy  good  in  his  labour.  We  shall  then 
listen  to  the  prophet  as  he  hurls  back  the 
triumphant  word,  '*  The  crooked  shall  become 
straight,'*  or  to  Paul  as  he  cries,  **  I  am  per- 
suaded that  neither  death  nor  life,  nor  angels 
nor  principalities,  nor  things  present  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  powers,  nor  height  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature  shall  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 

We  shall  spend  much  time  in  the  study  of 
the  biographies  of  the  obscure  pilgrims  of  the 
Roa.d.  Here  is  Andrew,  the  quiet  man  who 
was  always  introducing  men  to  Jesus.  Here  is 
Onesiphorus,  the  man  whose  heathen  parents 
had  named  him  at  birth,  "  Profit-bearer,"  but 
who  later  became  a  Christian.  No  profit- 
bearer   now  !      But   he   happened   to   be   in 


1 16  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

Rome,  remembered  that  there  was  a  certain 
near-sighted  Jew  by  the  name  of  Paul  who 
was  spending  the  last  months  of  his  life  in 
some  jail.  From  prison  to  prison  he  went, 
inquired  for  Paul,  found  him,  came  again 
and  yet  again  to  see  him,  refreshed  him, 
cooled  him  off,  as  Paul  puts  it.  His  coming 
was  like  a  breath  from  the  Alban  hills  to  the 
aged  prisoner  of  Jesus.  But  surely  the  man 
was  untrue  to  his  name  ?  Not  so.  He 
brought  profit  to  the  apostle,  and  to  Timothy, 
yes,  and  to  his  household.  What  would  you 
like  to  leave  to  your  children  at  your  death  ? 
A  few  dollars  which  your  sons  may  use 
or  lose?  Would  you  not  rather  have  the 
prayers  of  some  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  call- 
ing down  upon  them  God's  blessings  from 
the  heights  of  heaven  ?  But  surely  One- 
siphorus  was  unprofitable  to  himself?  A 
man  mustn't  melt  himself  down  into  oil  for 
the  tallow  trade.  Well,  how  much  would 
you  give  for  a  half  hour's  talk  with  the  Apostle 
Paul?  Would  you  insist  on  damask  cush- 
ions? Would  you  insist  on  an  airy  front 
office  overlooking  the  harbour,  a  room  with 
electric  lights  and  a  buzzing  electric  fan  ? 

Most  often  shall  we  bid  our  people  look 
upon  Jesus  as  He  walks  through  the  gardens 
and  along  the  roads  of  Galilee  and  of  our 
own  dear  land. 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        117 

"Behold  him  now  where  He  comes  ! 
Not  the  Christ  of  our  subtle  creeds, 
But  the  Lord  of  our  hearts,  of  our  homes, 
Of  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  needs  ; 
The  brother  of  want  and  blame, 
The  lover  of  women  and  men. 
With  a  love  that  puts  to  shame 
All  passions  of  mortal  ken." 

Have  you  never  had  this  experience  ?  You 
have  been  preaching  away  to  a  soggy, 
sodden,  sleepy  congregation,  and  then  you 
spoke  of  Jesus,  and  each  man  awoke  as  if  he 
caught  "sight  of  a  sweepy  garment  vast  and 
white,  with  a  hem  that  he  could  recognize." 

An  old  professor  of  mine  remarks,  "  Some 
preachers  are  always  on  castors."  I  believe 
one  reason  for  their  extraordinary  mobility  is 
their  failure  as  Biblical  preachers.  The  min- 
ister must  run  away  before  his  material  runs 
out.  The  words  of  William  Watson,  written 
indeed  with  another  thought  in  mind,  are 
specially  pertinent  to  the  preacher  and  his 
use  of  the  Bible. 

"  The  knights  rode  up  with  gifts  for  the  king, 
And  one  was  a  jewelled  sword, 
And  one  was  a  suit  of  golden  mail, 
And  one  was  a  golden  Word. 

*'  He  buckled  the  shining  armour  on 
And  he  girt  the  sword  at  his  side ; 
But  he  flung  at  his  feet  the  golden  Word 
And  trampled  it  in  his  pride. 


Il8  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

'<  The  arraour  is  pierced  with  many  spears, 
And  the  sword  is  breaking  in  twain ; 
But  the  Word  hath  risen  in  storm  and  fire 
To  vanquish  and  to  reign." 

The  preacher  who  makes  his  own  the 
golden  Word,  with  that  golden  Word  shall 
rise  to  reign  in  the  kingdom  of  the  preacher. 

"  You  have  apparently  implied  that,  as  we 
have  been  inevitably  influenced  by  the  his- 
torical criticism,  we  are  bound  to  preach  it. 
Do  you  believe  this?"  That  was  a  fine 
prayer  of  an  old  Union  Seminary  friend  of 
mine,  "  From  half  baked  Drivers,  Cheynes 
and  Briggses  in  the  pulpit.  Good  Lord,  de- 
liver us."  In  the  frank  and  intimate  fellow- 
ship, give  and  take,  question  and  answer  of 
the  Normal  Bible  Class  we  shall  lead  our 
people  into  the  liberating  truths  of  the 
modern  scholarship.  In  the  pulpit  we  shall 
assume  and  use  the  assured  results  of  his- 
torical criticism,  but  shall  not  label  them.  In 
general  we  shall  burn  our  own  smoke.  I 
came  upon  this  fascinating  translation  of 
Paul's  advice  to  his  callow  theologue  friend, 
Timothy  :  "  Adjure  them  before  the  Lord  not 
-.o  bandy  arguments — no  good  comes  out  of 
that,  it  only  means  the  undoing  of  your  au- 
dience. Do  your  utmost  to  let  God  see  that 
you  at  least  are  a  sound  workman,  with  no 
need  to  be  ashamed  of  the  way  you  handle  the 


The  Preacher  and  His  Bible        1 1 9 

word  of  the  Truth.  Shut  your  mind  against 
fooHsh,  popular  controversy;  be  sure  that  only 
breeds  strife.  And  the  Lord's  servant  must  not 
be  a  man  of  strife ;  he  must  be  kind  to  every- 
body, a  skilled  teacher,  a  man  who  will  not  re- 
sent injuries ;  he  must  be  gentle  in  his  admoni- 
tions to  the  opposition — God  may  perhaps  let 
them  change  their  mind  and  admit  the  Truth  ; 
they  may  come  to  their  senses  again  and  es- 
cape the  snare  of  the  devil,  as  they  are  brought 
back  to  life  by  God  to  do  His  will." 

Of  course  the  preacher  has  no  right  to  make 
his  pulpit  **  a  coward's  castle,"  and  no  man 
enters  the  kingdom  of  the  preacher  without 
tribulation.  But  I  ask  you  to  notice  that  there 
are  two  kinds  of  men  who  in  days  past  have 
died  violent  deaths.  There  are  the  men  whom 
the  world  crowns  as  martyrs,  God's  witnesses. 
There  are  the  men  whom  the  world  com- 
passionates or  condemns  as  fanatics  and 
fools.  The  minister  who  says  :  "  I  am  going 
to  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth  and  nothing 
but  the  truth,  always  and  under  all  circum- 
stances and  to  all  men,"  deserves  the  fate  he 
invites,  and  does  not  need  to  pose  for  a  mo- 
ment as  a  martyr.  When  a  man  writes  me 
that  he  has  been  driven  from  his  church  for 
preaching  the  higher  criticism,  I  am  inclined 
to  send  him  back  this  syllogism  and  ask  him 
to  discover  the  fallacy  : 


1 20  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

All  prophets  suffer. 

You  suffer. 

Therefore  you  are  a  prophet. 

George  A.  Gordon  remarks  that  the  best 
thing  he  got  out  of  his  seminary  days  was 
the  word  of  a  Methodist  minister  :  **  God  and 
a  fool  might  do  as  much  good  in  the  world 
^  as  God  and  a  wise  man,  but  they  have  never 
done  it." 

Paul  was  no  coward,  but  when  he  was 
dealing  with  babies,  he  gave  them  milk. 
To  the  last  Jesus  withheld  some  truths  from 
His  disciples,  because  they  could  not  bear 
them.  No  preacher  will  go  far  wrong  in  his 
use  of  the  Bible  if  he  is  able  reverently  to 
make  his  own  the  words  of  Jesus,  "  The 
spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  ME  because  the 
Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good 
tidings  to  the  poor,  to  proclaim  release  to 
the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the 
blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 

Let  us  teach  our  people  first  to  trust  our 
love,  our  faith,  our  honesty  AND  our  wis- 
dom. If  our  people  trust  our  love,  our  faith, 
our  honesty  AND  our  wisdom,  then  they 
will  follow  us,  though  at  times  we  lead  them 
by  new  paths  to  "  the  fair  world,  and  the 
beautiful  lights  of  heaven," 


IV 

Abraham  Lincoln :    The  Preach- 
er's Teacher 


IV 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN:  THE  PREACH- 
ER'S TEACHER 

NOT  all  of  us  are  called  preachers, 
but  all  of  us  are  interested  or  wish 
we  were  interested  in  preaching. 
A  friend  said  to  me,  *'  I  am  perfectly  willing 
to  serve  the  church.  I  should  be  entirely- 
willing  to  shovel  coal  into  the  furnace  but  I 
do  not  like  to  listen  to  sermons  ; "  and  yet 
this  very  man  would  have  listened  with  rapt 
attention  to  Phillips  Brooks.  And  I  suspect 
that  most  of  us  would  subscribe  to  the  words 
of  the  writer  who  says:  "The  churches 
are  made  up  of  plain  people,  and  the  plain 
people  always  know  what  they  want.  Fad- 
dists may  think  that  the  day  of  preaching 
has  gone  by,  but  the  churches  have  never 
been  so  certain  as  they  are  to-day  that  the 
man  most  essential  in  extending  the  work  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  the  preacher." 

What  is  more,  all  of  us  are  in  a  very  real 
sense  preachers  bearing  by  the  lips  some  sort 
of  life  message.  Particularly  true  is  this  of 
Congregationalists,  for  I  never  heard  of  a 
Congregationalist  who  belonged  to  the  sub- 

123 


124  ^^^  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

merged  and  silent  multitude.  I  would  speak 
then  of  Lincoln  as  our  teacher  in  the  fine  art 
of  preaching. 

February  is  a  month  of  memories.  We 
remember  the  birthday  of  Washington ;  we 
remember  the  birthday  of  Lincoln.  There 
are  other  memories.  On  February  4,  1861, 
the  delegates  from  six  seceding  states  met 
at  Montgomery,  Alabama.  On  February  9, 
1 86 1,  Jefferson  Davis  was  elected  President 
of  the  Confederacy.  On  February  11,  1861, 
Lincoln  left  Springfield  for  Washington,  bor- 
rowing money  enough  we  are  told  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  his  first  few  months  in  the 
White  House.  A  few  days  later  he  eluded 
the  first  attempt  at  assassination.  On  Feb- 
ruary 23,  he  reached  the  capital. 

Glance  for  a  moment  at  the  task  which 
faced  our  teacher  on  that  February  day  of 
1 86 1.  It  was  a  twofold  task.  Lincoln  un- 
derstood at  the  time  but  half  of  it.  The 
first  half  of  his  task  was  the  preservation  of 
the  Union ;  and  yet  we  read,  "  Before  his 
inauguration  the  seceding  states  had  control 
of  practically  every  fort,  arsenal,  dockyard, 
mint,  customs-house,  court-house  in  their  en- 
tire territory."  Robert  E.  Lee,  whom  Scott 
regarded  as  the  ablest  officer  in  the  army, 
resigned  and  took  command  of  the  forces 
of  Virginia.     A   federal   army  of  less   than 


Abraham  Lincoln  125 

20,000  men,  and  these  widely  scattered,  was 
at  Lincoln's  command.  The  sentiment  at 
the  North  was  divided.  Many  blatant  politi- 
cians insisted  that  Lincoln  should  belie  the 
promises  of  his  platform  and  compromise 
with  the  South  for  the  sake  of  unity.  Many 
of  the  most  influential  orators  and  newspa- 
pers insisted  that  we  should  allow  **  our  err- 
ing Southern  sisters  to  depart  in  peace." 

The  second  half  of  Lincoln's  task  as  it  de- 
veloped was  the  abolition  of  slavery.  And 
yet  as  Lincoln  said  in  his  second  inaugural 
address,  "  One-eighth  of  the  whole  population 
were  coloured  slaves,  not  widely  distributed 
over  the  union,  but  localized  in  the  southern 
part  of  it.  These  slaves  constituted  a  peculiar 
and  powerful  interest."  Slavery  had  affected 
the  whole  life  of  the  nation.  Scarcely  a  vote 
was  cast  at  the  polls,  scarcely  a  decision  was 
rendered  in  a  court  of  justice,  scarcely  a  dol- 
lar's worth  of  business  was  transacted,  but 
upon  it  fell  the  shadow  of  the  curse.  Mean- 
while in  1861,  the  thought  of  immediate  abo- 
lition was  the  thought  of  a  few  so-called 
"  sciolists "  and  fanatics.  Truly  "  the  pilot 
was  hurried  to  the  helm  in  a  tornado." 

What  of  the  pilot  ?  A  child  of  poverty,  his 
father  barely  able  to  scrawl  his  name,  his 
mother  buried  one  dismal  day,  her  cofifin 
made  of  green  lumber,  cut  by  the  father's 


126  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

whip-saw ;  a  lad  with  about  a  year's  school- 
ing all  told ;  a  young  man  with  his  dreams, 
his  loves,  his  disappointments,  his  great  sor- 
rows ;  a  rural  lawyer,  a  legislator  of  the  fron- 
tier, a  congressman  of  one  term,  and  now  a 
man  fifty-two  years  of  age,  an  old  man,  as  he 
calls  himself,  a  poor  man.  In  a  letter  dated 
i860,  he  writes,  "I  could  not  raise  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  if  it  would  save  me  from  the  fate 
of  John  Brown." 

The  task  then,  a  task  which  Lincoln  said 
was  greater  than  that  which  rested  upon 
Washington,  and  the  man  ?  Can  we  won- 
der that  the  people  of  the  East  looked  cold 
and  sad  ?  And  yet  the  man,  this  man,  met 
and  mastered  his  task, 

I 

"  Grew  up  a  destined  work  to  do 

And  lived  to  do  it — four  long-suffering  years; 
Ill-fate,  ill-feeling,  ill-report,  lived  through. 
And  then  he  heard  the  hisses  change  to  cheers." 

The  Union  was  saved,  slavery  was  abol- 
ished. **  He  bound  the  Union,  he  unbound 
the  slave."  This  man  finished  his  **  great 
job."  A  contemporary  cartoon  represents 
Lincoln  holding  in  his  hand  an  envelope  in- 
scribed **  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution." He  smiles  and  says,  "  This  is  like 
a  dream  I  once  had  in  Illinois."  The  dream 
of  Lincoln's  life  had  come  true. 


Abraham  Lincoln  127 

Before  us,  preachers  all,  lies  not  indeed 
the  same  task  as  that  of  Lincoln.  We  do  not 
unduly  magnify  our  office  if  we  compare  our 
task  with  his.  Each  minister  of  the  Gospel  in 
pulpit  or  in  pew  is  a  leader  of  those  forces 
which  are  seeking  to  bind  the  union,  not  of 
states,  but  of  men,  not  in  the  bonds  of  polit- 
ical unity,  but  in  the  bonds  of  ''  a  world-wide 
civilization  of  friendly  workmen."  Each 
preacher  is  a  leader  of  those  forces  which  are 
seeking  to  unbind  the  slaves  of  evil  condi- 
tions and  of  evil  dispositions,  to  lift  the  arti- 
ficial burdens  from  the  shoulders  and  the 
hearts  of  men,  to  give  to  all  men  "  a  fair  chance 
at  all  good  things."  And  here  are  we,  men 
who  feel  profoundly  inadequate  to  our  task, 
like  Lincoln,  it  may  be,  with  little  education, 
with  little  prestige  among  the  elite,  with 
empty  purse.  "  But,"  you  say,  **  the  analogy 
does  not  hold  good,  for  Lincoln  controlled  the 
armies  and  the  navies  and  the  boundless  re- 
sources of  the  nation,  and  he  dedicated  them 
all  to  the  relentless  crushing  of  the  foe." 
That^s  true  ;  but  mark  you,  he  could  not  have 
compelled  army,  navy  or  resources  for  twenty- 
four  months  except  by  the  methods  which  are 
at  our  command,  the  methods  of  persuasion, 
the  methods  of  the  preacher. 

And  perhaps  the  first  suggestion  that  our 
teacher  would  make  to  us  is  this,  that  the 


128  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

preacher  does  not  need  to  be  prepossessing. 
You  recall  the  man  who  solemnly  gave  Lin- 
coln a  jack-knife,  saying,  **  This  knife  was 
placed  in  my  hands  some  years  ago  with  the 
injunction  that  I  was  to  keep  it  until  I  should 
find  a  man  uglier  than  I  was.  Allow  me  to 
say,  sir,  that  I  think  you  are  fairly  entitled  to 
this  property  "  Closing  an  autobiographical 
sketch  written  in  1859,  Lincoln  says,  *' If  any 
personal  description  of  me  is  thought  desira- 
ble, it  may  be  said  I  am  in  height  six  feet, 
four  inches  nearly,  lean  in  flesh,  weighing  on 
an  average  one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds, 
dark  complexion,  with  coarse  black  hair  and 
gray  eyes.  No  other  marks  or  brands  rec- 
ollected."    Men  were  quick  to  note 

"  His  length  of  shambling  limb,  his  furrowed  face. 
His  gaunt,  gnarled  hands,  his  unkempt,  bristling 

hair, 
His  garb  uncouth,  his  bearing  ill  at  ease, 
His  lack  of  all  we  prize  as  debonair, 
Of  power  or  will  to  shine,  of  art  to  please." 

And  yet  we  are  told  that  when  he  was  awak- 
ened he  became  transfigured,  so  that  a  man 
who  heard  him  said,  "  He  was  the  handsom- 
est man  I  ever  saw."  And  our  teacher  raises 
this  query  :  If,  homely  as  we  are,  we  could 
just  once,  only  once  be  thoroughly  awak- 
ened, would  not  our  very  homeliness  become 
handsome  ? 


Abraham  Lincoln  129 

Lincoln  hasn't  much  to  teach  us  regard- 
ing delivery.  His  gestures  were  sometimes 
strangely  awkward.  In  his  debates  with 
Douglass,  he  had  a  way,  we  are  told,  of 
coming  down,  bending  his  knees,  and  then 
rising  up  to  more  than  his  full  height.  This 
habit  gradually  wore  away  ;  but  one  would 
not  study  his  gestures  to  imitate  them.  Nor 
need  we  envy  the  voice  of  our  teacher.  It  is 
said  that  he  had  a  high  pitched  tenor  voice, 
rising  at  times  of  emotion  into  a  falsetto  ;  but 
there  is  one  thing  to  be  noted  :  "  His  voice 
could  carry  farther  than  Douglass's  heavy 
basso."  Nor  did  he  trust  implicitly  the 
range  of  his  voice.  When  he  was  about  to 
give  his  famous  Cooper  Union  speech,  he 
planned  that  a  friend  should  sit  in  the  rear  of 
the  room  and  lift  his  umbrella  if  the  speaker 
could  not  be  easily  heard.  Perhaps  none  of 
us  has  a  vice  more  irritating  than  that  of 
dropping  the  voice  at  the  end  of  each  sen- 
tence, so  that  if  the  congregation  follows  the 
discourse  at  all,  it  is  by  skill  in  lip-reading. 

Has  Lincoln  anything  to  teach  us  as  to  the 
choice  of  words  ?  The  words  of  his  choice 
were  not  merely  the  happy  inspiration  of  the 
untrained  linguist.  When  preparing  his 
telegrams  for  the  front,  we  read,  he  would 
sit  a  long  while  chewing  the  end  of  his  pen, 
a  habit  of  his,  until  he  found  the  right  word. 


130  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

Seldom  is  this  right  word  one  of  the  great 
mouth-filling  words.  Almost  always  it  is  a 
word  chosen  from  the  common  speech  of 
common  men. 

In  a  certain  town,  not  two  thousand  miles 
away  from  Oberlin,  a  little  girl  sat  in  church 
with  her  mother,  and  whispered,  "  Mama, 
what  is  the  minister  trying  to  say?"  **Why, 
my  dear,  he  is  telling  us  to  be  good."  '*  Oh, 
I  wish  he  would  stop,  I  will  be  good.  I  want 
to  hear  the  music  again."  How  many  of  our 
hearers  would  agree  at  once  to  be  good,  if 
we  would  only  stop,  or  else  use  the  language 
of  the  homes  and  the  hearts  of  men. 

**  Think  not  that  strength  lies  in  the  big  round  word, 
Or  that  the  brief  and  plain  must  needs  be  weak. 

There  is  a  strength 
Which  dies  if  stretched  too  far  or  spun  too  fine, 
Which  has  more  height  than  breadth,  more  depth 

than  length. 
Let  but  this  force  of  thought  and  speech  be  mine, 
And  he  that  will  may  take  the  sleek  fat  phrase, 
Which  glows  and  burns  not,  though  it  gleam  and 

shine, 
Light  but  not  heat,  a  flash  but  not  a  blaze." 

There  is  a  story  told  of  a  literary  genius,  who 
at  night  would  wake  stung  by  the  splendour 
of  a  sudden  thought,  and  would  say  to  his 
wife,  '*  Mary,  get  up  and  light  a  candle ;  I 
have  thought  of  a  good  word."     At  last  the 


Abraham  Lincoln  131 

worm  turned :  "  William,"  said  Mary  one 
night,  *•  get  up  yourself  and  light  a  candle  ; 
I  have  tliought  of  a  bad  word."  And  yet 
with  some  risk  to  family  felicity,  we  might 
still  be  blest,  should  we  take  more  care  to 
choose  the  good  word,  always  remembering 
that  particularly  good  word  of  Lowell,  **  The 
highest  outcome  of  culture  is  simplicity." 

Let  us  question  our  teacher  somewhat 
further,  and  ask  him  of  his  style  of  speech. 
I  suspect  that  he  thought  comparatively  little 
about  it,  and  yet  he  was  not  indifferent  to  it, 
and  we  know  that  an  eminent  teacher  of 
English  at  Yale  followed  him  about  in  New 
England,  that  he  might  learn  and  teach  the 
secret  of  his  strength. 

You  are  all  familiar  with  the  sermon  of 
Dr.  Hitchcock,  entitled,  *'  The  Eternal  Atone- 
ment." Professor  Bliss  of  Palestine  Explora- 
tion fame  told  me  that  he  read  this  sermon 
once  a  twelvemonth  for  the  tonic  of  thought: 
but  mark  the  language  here  and  there.  For 
example  :  **  The  Hebrew  mind  as  represented 
by  Philo  was  only  just  beginning  to  be  trini- 
tarian  when  Christ's  life  in  the  flesh  compelled 
the  Hebrew  mind  as  represented  by  Peter  and 
Paul  and  John  to  a  new  theology.  After 
Pentecost,  bald  unitarianism  was  anach- 
ronous.  Christian  experience  logically  re- 
quired three  divine  persons,  of  one  and  the 


132  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

same  divine  essence.  Economic  trinity  re- 
quired essential  trinity."  Now  I  know  that 
to  you  this  is  clear  as  "a  cloudless  moon.'* 
But  theologues  who  have  read  this  sermon 
as  a  task  of  the  curriculum  have  expressed  the 
wish  that  Hitchcock  had  studied  at  the  feet 
of  Lincoln. 

As  we  study  Lincoln's  style,  we  note  its 
exceeding  compression.  Perhaps  you  should 
expect  this  compression  in  telegrams ;  but 
take  this  sent  to  McClellan,  "  I  have  just  re- 
ceived your  despatch  about  sore- ton gued  and 
fatigued  horses.  Will  you  pardon  me  for 
asking  what  the  horses  of  your  army  have 
done  since  the  battle  of  Antietam  that  fatigues 
anything?"  Or  this  to  Grant:  "General 
Sheridan  says,  *  If  the  thing  is  pressed,  I 
think  that  Lee  will  surrender.'  Let  the  thing 
be  pressed."  One  might  perhaps  expect  this 
compression  of  style  in  a  casual  note  of  com- 
mendation like  this :  "  My  dear  sir,  the  lady, 
bearer  of  this,  says  she  has  two  sons  who 
want  to  work.  Wanting  to  work  is  so  rare 
a  want  that  it  should  be  encouraged."  But 
take  this  typical  remark  :  "  Grant  is  a  copious 
worker  and  fighter,  but  a  very  meager  writer 
or  telegrapher." 

In  a  letter  to  James  Conkling,  there  is  a 
striking  illustration  of  this  compression  of 
style.     **  There  are  those  who  are  dissatisfied 


Abraham  Lincoln  133 

with  me.  To  such  I  would  say,  You  desire 
peace,  and  you  blame  me  that  you  do  not 
have  it.  But  how  can  we  attain  it?  There 
are  but  three  conceivable  ways ;  first  to  sup- 
press the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms ;  this  I 
am  trying  to  do.  Are  you  for  it?  If  you 
are,  so  far  we  are  agreed.  If  you  are  not 
for  that,  a  second  way  is  to  give  up  the 
Union.  I  am  against  this.  Are  you  for  it? 
If  you  are,  you  should  say  so  plainly.  If 
you  are  not  for  force,  nor  yet  for  dissolution, 
there  only  remains  some  imaginable  compro- 
mise. I  do  not  believe  that  any  compromise 
embracing  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  is 
now  possible."  Carl  Schurz  explains  this 
characteristic  of  style :  "  As  a  boy,  Abe  soon 
felt  the  impulse  to  write,  not  only  making 
extracts  from  books  which  he  wished  to  re- 
member, but  also  composing  little  essays  of 
his  own.  First  he  sketched  these  with  char- 
coal on  a  wooden  shovel,  scraped  white  with 
a  d'rawing  knife,  or  on  bass-wood  shingles, 
then  he  transferred  them  to  paper,  which  was 
a  scarce  commodity  in  the  Lincoln  house- 
hold, taking  care  to  cut  his  expressions  close 
so  that  they  might  not  cover  too  much  space." 
With  us  paper  is  too  cheap.  A  while  ago  a 
friend  of  mine  was  asked  to  write  a  daily 
hundred  word  sermon  for  the  newspaper.  It 
was  a  *'  salt  and  bitter  and  good  "  experience. 


134  The  Preacber*s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

Again  our  teacher  would  bid  us  speak  in 
such  fashion  as  to  compel  our  hearers'  ears 
to  serve  as  eyes.  In  the  art  he  urges,  Lincoln 
is  himself  past  master.  Note  his  method. 
"  Every  man,  black,  white  or  yellow,  has  a 
mouth  to  be  fed,  and  two  hands  with  which 
to  feed  it,  and  bread  should  be  allowed  to  go 
to  that  mouth  without  controversy."  And  at 
once  you  see  three  men,  one  black,  one  white, 
one  yellow,  the  mouth  of  each  man,  the  two 
hands  of  each  reaching  for  the  bread  to  con- 
vey it  to  the  mouth.  Again :  "  Douglass 
thinks  he  sees  the  last  tip  of  the  last  joint  of 
the  old  serpent's  tail  just  drawing  out  of 
sight ; "  or  again  :  "  The  Judge  thinks  that 
the  Almighty  has  drawn  a  moral  climate  line 
across  the  continent,  on  one  side  of  which 
labour  must  be  performed  by  slaves."  Know- 
ing well  the  value  of  visualization,  he  urges 
us  by  his  practice  to  use  germ  parables. 
"You  will  not  abide  the  election  of  a  Repub- 
lican president.  In  that  supposed  event,  you 
say,  we  will  destroy  the  Union.  And  then 
you  say  the  great  crime  of  having  destroyed 
it  will  be  upon  us.  That  is  cool.  A  high- 
wayman holds  a  pistol  to  m)^  ear,  and  mut- 
ters through  his  teeth,  'Stand  and  deliver,  or 
I  shall  kill  you,  and  then  you  will  be  a  mur- 
derer.' "  Or  again,  *'  I  do  not  allow  myself 
to  suppose  that  either  the  convention  or  the 


Abraham  Lincoln  135 

League  have  concluded  that  I  am  either  the 
greatest  or  the  best  man  in  America,  but 
rather  they  have  concluded  that  it  is  not 
best  to  swap  horses  while  crossing  the  river, 
and  have  further  concluded  that  I  am  not  so 
poor  a  horse  that  they  might  not  make  a 
botch  of  it  in  trying  to  swap." 

Every  now  and  then  the  germ,  we  ob- 
serve, should  be  developed  into  a  full  blown 
parable.  Permit  me  to  remind  you  of  two 
familiar  and  famous  illustrations.  He  is 
speaking  of  the  proposed  expansion  of  sla- 
very into  the  territories.  *'  If  I  find  a  venom- 
ous snake  lying  on  the  open  prairie  I  seize 
the  first  stick  and  kill  him  at  once,  but  if  the 
snake  is  in  bed  with  my  children,  I  must  be 
more  cautious  lest  I  shall,  in  striking  the 
snake,  also  strike  the  children  or  rouse  the 
reptile  to  bite  the  children.  But  if  the  ques- 
tion is  whether  to  kill  it  on  the  prairie  or  put 
it  in  bed  with  the  other  children,  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  we'd  kill  it."  The  illustration 
has  all  the  force  of  a  demonstration. 

His  critics  came  to  him  quite  distracted 
by  his  sins  of  omission  and  commission. 
*'  Gentlemen,  suppose  that  all  the  property 
you  were  worth  was  in  gold,  and  you  had 
put  it  in  the  hands  of  Blondin  to  carry  across 
the  Niagara  River  on  a  rope,  would  you 
shake  the  cable,  or  keep  shouting  to  him, 


136  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

*  Blondin,  stand  up  a  little  straighter ;  Blondin, 
stoop  a  little  more,  go  a  little  faster,  lean  a 
little  more  to  the  north,  lean  a  little  more  to 
the  south  '  ?  No,  you  would  hold  your  breath 
as  well  as  your  tongue  and  keep  your  hands 
off  until  he  was  safe  over."  That  parable 
needs  no  elucidation. 

Our  people  are  surrounded  by  innumerable 
appeals  to  the  eye.  There  has  been  a  great 
change  in  this  matter  even  since  some  of  us 
younger  men  began  to  preach.  No  maga- 
zine except  the  Hibbert  Journal  and  the 
Atlantic  without  its  pictures,  no  newspaper 
without  its  cuts  and  cartoons.  The  theatres 
and  moving  picture  shows  all  speak  to  the 
eye.  Charles  M.  Sheldon  has  learned  to 
speak  to  the  eye.  At  the  other  pole  of  plat- 
form speech  is  Billy  Sunday.  Can  we  doubt 
for  a  moment  that  much  of  his  unquestioned 
power  arises  from  his  ability  to  make  men 
see  with  their  eyes  the  things  which  they  hear 
with  their  ears  ? 

I  jot  down  in  my  note-book  another  sug- 
gestion of  our  teacher,  namely,  that  a  deadly 
earnestness  of  speech  is  entirely  compatible 
with  the  play  of  humour.  Lincoln's  humour 
is  not  always  very  subtle.  In  his  early  days 
he  sees  Adam  and  Eve  at  work,  "sewing 
aprons,  the  first  sewing  society,  the  mother 
of  all  sewing  societies."     Later  he  tells  us 


Abraham  Lincoln  137 

that  Douglass's  popular  sovereignty  idea 
'*  is  being  simmered  down  until  it  has  be- 
come as  thin  as  the  homoeopathic  soup 
made  by  boiling  the  shadow  of  a  pigeon 
that  has  starved  to  death."  But  he  is  always 
being  reminded  of  a  story.  When  friends 
come  to  him  to  tell  him  of  a  beautiful  way  to 
end  the  war,  he  is  reminded  of  a  man  who 
was  trying  to  head  up  a  barrel,  but  found 
that  the  boards  always  fell  in.  A  brilliant 
idea  came  to  him.  He  would  put  his  little 
boy  inside  to  hold  up  the  boards.  The  plan 
succeeded  to  admiration,  but  the  man  found 
to  his  surprise  and  regret  that  he  had  nailed 
his  little  boy  inside.  When  some  citizens 
propose  a  naval  diversion  in  the  South,  he  is 
reminded  of  an  old  lady  of  Salem,  who  had 
a  singing  in  her  head,  and  put  a  plaster  of 
psalm  tunes  on  her  feet  to  draw  the  singing 
down. 

I  know  it  is  easy  to  win  the  reputation  of 
the  buffoon,  the  court  fool.  There  is  no 
sadder  death  to  die  than  the  death  of  the 
after-dinner  speaker;  but  by  his  humour 
Lincoln  drew  the  poison  from  the  fangs  of 
madness,  and  kept  his  own  mind  sane.  Can 
you  not  see  the  Master  smile  as  he  tells  of  the 
devil  who  goes  out  of  a  man,  wanders  about 
in  waterless  places,  seeking  rest  and  finding 
none  ;  who  thinks  of  the  old  homestead,  dis- 


138  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

covers  it  empty,  swept  and  garnished,  and 
brings  trooping  after  him  seven  other  devils 
worse  than  himself?  The  laughter  which 
laughs  never  at  people,  but  with  people, 
helps  to  carry  a  strong  man's  message  to 
men. 

And  in  this  speech  of  Lincoln's,  so  com- 
pressed, so  concrete  and  picturesque,  so  shot 
through  with  humour,  there  is  always  an 
extraordinary  directness  of  address.  "  Let 
me  talk  to  some  gentleman  down  there  who 
looks  me  in  the  face,"  this  at  Quincy  ;  or 
again  at  Alton,  "  Let  me  take  the  gentleman 
who  looks  me  in  the  face  and  let  us  suppose 
that  he  is  a  member  of  the  territorial  legisla- 
ture." Always  he  seems  to  be  saying  to 
each  of  his  hearers:  *'I  am  not  talking  to 
the  crowd  of  people  down  there :  I  want  to 
take  YOU  by  the  hand  and  reason  this  thing 
out  with  you  personally,  sure  that  we  shall 
agree  just  as  soon  as  we  understand  the 
matter  aright."  "Watch  me  as  I  sail  up 
into  the  empyrean !"  None  of  that.  "  Come 
now  and  let  us  reason  together."  So  shall  a 
man  become  a  persuader  of  men. 

I  may  have  given  the  impression  that  in 
this  speech  of  his  there  is  little  of  dignity, 
beauty,  distinction  ;  but  we  should  wrong 
our  teacher  by  leaving  such  an  impression. 
It  is  true  that  in  the  early  days  there  was  a 


Abraham  Lincoln  139 

good  deal  of  that  flamboyant  speech  which 
still  characterizes  some  of  our  sophomoric 
contests.  For  example,  in  1842,  as  he  speaks 
on  temperance  he  says,  **  Happy  day,  when 
all  appetites  controlled,  all  poisons  subdued, 
all  matter  subjected,  mind,  all  conquering 
mind,  shall  live  and  move  the  monarch  of  the 
world.  Glorious  consummation.  Hail,  fall 
of  Fury,  Reign  of  Reason,  all  hail."  Of 
course  this  is  pretty  bad ;  but  mark  the 
change  and  listen  to  his  words  uttered  little 
more  than  a  month  before  his  death :  **  Fondly 
do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass 
away.  Yet  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until 
all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil 
shall  be  sunk,  and  every  drop  of  blood  drawn 
with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn 
with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  must  it  be  said,  the  judg- 
ments of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether." 

But  does  the  preacher  wish  to  win  the  at- 
tention of  the  plain  people?  Must  he  not 
go  for  his  language  to  the  gutter  and  the 
prize-ring,  or,  at  the  very  least,  to  the  sport- 
ing page  of  the  New  York  Jour7ial?  Re- 
cently one  of  our  eminent  ministers  speak- 
ing upon  the  Prodigal  Son  announced  his 


140  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

subject,  **  Home  from  the  Hog-Pen."  Surely 
this  is  the  short  swift  path  to  popularity. 
Well,  one  day  Lincoln  said  to  thousands  of 
the  plain  people  of  America,  surrounded  by 
the  graves  of  other  thousands  of  the  plain 
people  of  America,  "  The  world  will  little 
note,  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here/* 
and  then  he  began  to  utter  words  so  pure, 
so  lofty,  that  one  would  say  he  spoke  the 
truth,  that  the  world  would  indeed  little  note 
nor  long  remember ;  but  for  once  Abraham 
Lincoln  did  not  speak  the  truth,  for  those 
same  pure  and  lofty  words  will  be  remem- 
bered by  the  plain  people  of  America  when 
the  Civil  War  shall  be  a  myth.  Are  all  the 
people  going  to  be  fooled  all  the  time  ? 

As  Lincoln  speaks  to  us  of  his  choice  of 
words  and  his  style  of  speech,  he  tells  us  that 
both  have  been  dictated  mainly  by  his  desire 
to  be  understood.  He  seems  to  be  sure 
that  the  understanding  of  his  message  will 
mean  the  acceptance  of  his  message.  A 
writer  remarks :  "  He  was  so  clear  that  he 
could  not  be  misunderstood  or  misrepre- 
sented." In  one  of  those  revealing  bits  of 
autobiography  Lincoln  says :  "  I  remember 
how,  when  a  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated 
when  anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  that  I 
could  not  understand.  I  do  not  think  that  I 
ever  got  angry  at  anything  else  in  my  life, 


Abraham  Lincoln  141 

but  that  always  disturbed  my  temper  and 
has  ever  since.  I  am  never  easy  now  when 
1  am  handUng  a  thought,  till  I  have  bounded 
it  north,  and  bounded  it  south,  and  bounded 
it  east,  and  bounded  it  west."  It  is  not  easy 
to  bound  on  all  sides  the  thought  which  the 
preacher  has  to  handle,  but  does  not  the 
very  difficulty  of  the  problem  bind  us  to 
make  our  hearers  understand  ? 

And  this  leads  us  to  listen  to  another  con- 
sideration. As  we  pass  from  the  clothes  of 
Lincoln's  thought  to  the  thought  itself,  it  is 
fascinating  to  note  that  our  teacher  would 
have  us  always  strike  for  what  he  calls  **  the 
central  idea  "  or  '*  the  naked  issue."  **  That's 
the  naked  issue,  and  the  whole  of  it,"  he 
would  say.  "  Public  opinion  has  a  central 
idea."  This  he  must  always  find.  "  If  I 
can  clean  this  case  of  technicalities  and  get 
it  properly  swung  to  the  jury,  I'll  win  it." 
"In  law,"  and  he  might  have  added,  in  re- 
ligion, "it  is  good  policy  never  to  plead 
what  you  need  not  lest  you  be  obliged  to 
prove  what  you  cannot."  "  Judge  Doug- 
lass," he  would  say,  "is  playing  cuttlefish, 
a  small  species  of  fish  that  has  no  mode  of 
defending  itself  except  by  throwing  out  a 
black  fluid  which  makes  the  water  so  dark 
that  the  enemy  cannot  see  it,  and  thus  it 
escapes.     Is  not  the  Judge  playing  the  cut- 


142  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

tlefish  ?  *'  The  foes  of  the  common  good 
are  expert  in  playing  cuttlefish,  and  they 
are  never  quite  so  happy  as  when  we 
good  preachers  are  lost  in  the  murk  and  the 
dark  of  the  unnecessary  and  the  extraneous. 
Happy  the  preacher  who  strikes  for  the 
"  central  idea,"  the  ''  naked  issue." 

We  ask  our  teacher  how  in  the  midst  of 
the  universal  confusion  and  sophistry  he 
managed  to  discover  the  central  ideas,  the 
naked  issues.  Not  without  immense  labour 
did  he  find  them.  He  would  walk  nine  miles 
to  get  a  book.  The  weighty  volumes  of 
Blackstone  which  a  stranger  left  in  his  store 
in  the  bottom  of  a  barrel  he  read.  *'  Never 
in  my  whole  life  was  my  mind  so  thoroughly 
absorbed.  I  read  until  I  devoured  them." 
Much  of  Lincoln's  power  came  from  his 
careful  statement  of  fact  gained  by  hard 
study.  With  a  great  price  he  bought  his 
power,  and  can  a  smaller  man  pay  a  smaller 
price  ? 

Much  of  our  reading  is  a  substitute  for 
thinking.  A  writer  reminds  us  that  the  poet 
Southey  was  telling  a  Quaker  lady  and  with 
some  pride,  how  his  time  was  occupied.  He 
studied  Portuguese  while  he  was  shaving. 
He  studied  Spanish  an  hour  before  breakfast. 
He  read  all  the  forenoon,  and  wrote  all 
the  afternoon.     '*  Friend,"  said   the  Friend, 


Abraham  Lincoln  143 

"when  does  thee  do  thy  thinking?"  So 
I  hear  Lincoln  say  to  us,  "  Friend,  let  no 
pride  of  the  hale  fellow  well  met,  no  glory 
in  the  tide  of  *  mixer,'  vilest  of  all  ministerial 
titles,  lose  to  you  the  leisure  for  thought,  the 
chance  to  make  your  own  the  central  ideas, 
the  naked  issues  of  the  faith  you  preach." 

And  now  our  teacher  would  tell  us  some 
of  the  inner  secrets  of  his  power  as  a  per- 
suader of  men.  One  secret  was  his  early  al- 
legiance to  a  great  and  unpopular  Cause.  As 
early  as  1837  Lincoln  joined  with  one  other 
state  representative  of  Illinois  in  signing  a 
resolution  which  is  said  to  have  been  the 
first  formal  declaration  against  the  system  of 
slavery  made  in  any  legislative  body  in  the 
United  States,  at  least  west  of  the  Hudson 
River.  In  1849,  Lincoln  in  Congress  moved 
an  amendment  instructing  the  proper  com- 
mittee to  report  a  bill  abolishing  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  He  got  hold  of 
this  thought,  ''  Freedom  is  national,  slavery 
is  sectional."  Just  before  he  entered  upon 
his  duties  as  President,  he  wrote  to  a  South- 
erner :  "  You  think  slavery  is  right,  and 
ought  to  be  extended,  while  we  think  it  is 
wrong  and  ought  to  be  restricted."  When 
he  became  President  his  new  position  in- 
volved the  primacy  of  a  new  allegiance,  the 
allegiance  to  the  Union.     Strikingly  is  the 


144    rhe  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

change  suggested  by  that  letter  to  Greeley, 
which  suggests  as  well  every  quality  of  the 
preacher's  style,  for  which  our  teacher  has 
pleaded.  After  certain  discriminating  and 
gently  chiding  words,  we  read,  "  As  to  the  pol- 
icy I  seem  to  be  pursuing,  as  you  say,  I  have 
not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt.  I  would 
save  the  Union,  I  would  save  it  in  the  shortest 
way  under  the  Constitution.  If  there  be 
those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless 
they  could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery, 
I  do  not  agree  with  them.  My  paramount 
object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save  the  Union, 
and  is  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 
If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing 
any  slave  I  would  do  it.  And  if  I  could  save 
it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves  I  would  do  it,  and 
if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving 
others  slaves,  I  would  also  do  that,"  Al- 
ways indeed  he  knew  that  to  further  the 
cause  of  the  Union  was  to  further  the  cause 
of  freedom.  It  was  in  the  fall  of  1862  that 
the  two  causes  became  inextricably  united. 
The  permanency  of  the  Union  involved  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 

But  mark  the  influence  of  this  allegiance 
to  a  Cause.  At  the  summons  of  his  Cause, 
he  was  perfectly  willing  to  surrender  the  po- 
litical promotion  which  he  honestly  openly 
desirod.     At  the  summons  of  his  Cause  he 


Abraham  Lincoln  145 

determined  that  if  he  failed,  he  would  still  do 
all  he  could  for  his  Cause.  One  of  the  most 
pathetic  pieces  of  literature  is  that  private 
memorandum  written  shortly  before  his  sec- 
ond election.  *'  This  morning  as  for  some 
days  past  it  seems  exceedingly  probable  that 
this  administration  will  not  be  reelected. 
Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  so  cooperate  with 
the  president-elect  as  to  save  the  Union  be- 
tween the  election  and  the  inauguration,  as 
he  will  have  secured  his  election  on  such 
grounds  that  he  cannot  possibly  save  it  af- 
terwards." How  fine  it  would  be  if  a  pastor 
looking  forward  to  his  compulsory  retire- 
ment from  his  church  could  write  for  his 
guidance  a  memorandum  like  that.  At  the 
summons  of  his  Cause,  he  showed  an  almost 
Christlike  magnanimity.  He  could  take  into 
his  cabinet  the  man  who  had  called  him  the 
original  gorilla.  He  could  keep  in  his  cab- 
inet the  man  who  had  actually  proposed  that 
Lincoln  should  surrender  to  him  the  reins  of 
government.  He  could  keep  in  his  cabinet 
the  man  who  was  making  an  active  canvass 
for  the  presidency,  and  then  when  oppor- 
tunity offered,  he  could  make  this  man  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States.  At  the  sum- 
mons of  his  Cause  he  looked,  fearless,  into 
the  daily  face  of  death.  As  the  months 
passed,  the  pile  of  assassination  letters  grew, 


146  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

but  he  held  not  his  life  of  any  account  as 
dear  unto  himself  that  he  might  fulfill  his 
course  and  the  ministry  assigned  him  by  the 
Cause.  It  is  a  great  word  of  Fairbairn, 
"  The  man  who  is  as  it  were  annihilated  by 
his  mission,  is  most  magnified  by  it.  He 
becomes  an  organ  of  deity,  a  voice  of  God." 
Was  Lincoln's  Cause  more  compelling,  more 
imperious  than  that  which  claims  our  al- 
legiance ?  To  be  Comrades  of  the  Cause,  to 
know  no  failure  but  the  failure  of  the  Cause, 
no  triumph  but  the  triumph  of  the  Cause, 
that  is  one  of  the  great  teachings  of  our 
great  teacher. 

Lincoln  leads  us  back  of  this  fact  of  al- 
legiance to  a  Cause  to  certain  other  charac- 
teristics which  make  him  one  of  the  preach- 
er's sovereign  teachers.  We  note  first  his 
confidence  in  himself.  He  was  utterly  with- 
out those  bulwarks  of  self-respect  which  most 
of  us  have.  He  was  a  very  sensitive  man. 
He  was  criticized,  condescended  to.  He  was 
made  to  wait  at  the  door  of  McClellan's 
headquarters.  In  a  letter  to  Hackett  the 
actor  he  says,  "  I  have  endured  a  great  deal 
of  ridicule  without  much  maHce  and  have  re- 
ceived a  great  deal  of  kindness  not  quite  free 
from  ridicule.  I  am  used  to  it."  When  the 
presidency  came  to  him,  he  said  in  a  speech 
to  the  New  York  Legislature,  *'  I  trust  that  I 


Abraham  Lincoln  147 

may  have  their  assistance  in  piloting  the  ship 
of  state  through  this  voyage,  for  if  it  should 
suffer  wreck  now  there  will  be  no  pilot  ever 
needed  for  another  voyage."  And  yet  know- 
ing that  he  might  be  the  last  pilot  of  the  ship, 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  take  the  helm.  He 
called  to  his  assistance  men  whom  the  world 
and  they  themselves  regarded  as  far  greater 
than  himself.  He  met  diplomats,  representa- 
tives of  world  powers,  great  captains  with 
their  guns  and  drums,  and  always  on  terms 
of  perfect  equality,  as  friends,  comrades.  A 
minister  came  home  after  preaching  his  even- 
ing sermon  and  said  to  his  wife,  "  I  swear  I 
will  never  preach  again."  •*  Did  any  one 
thank  you  for  your  sermon  ?  "  **  No."  '*  I 
thought  not."  Garfield  said  of  his  wife,  "  She 
is  unstampedable."  To  have  an  honest  self- 
respect,  the  conviction  that  whatever  other 
men  may  say  we  have  a  message  from  God, 
this  is  to  have  one  of  the  secrets  of  Lincoln's 
power  over  men.  So  a  man  speaks  with  au- 
thority and  not  as  the  scribes. 

Along  with  this  confidence  in  self,  Lincoln 
would  lead  us  into  his  own  comradeship  with, 
and  confidence  in,  the  people.  He  was  called 
by  the  one  party,  "  Nigger,  nigger-lover,"  by 
the  other  party,  "  the  slave-hound  of  Illinois." 
His  generals  failed  him.  Congress  failed  him, 
the  papers  lampooned  him,  yet  his  comrade- 


1^8  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

ship  grew  into  a  beautiful  tenderness.  "  Massa 
Linculm  am  ebery  where,"  said  the  negro. 

"  He  was  the  north,  the  south,  the  east,  the  west, 
The  thrall,  the  master,  all  of  us  in  one." 

And  with  this  comradeship  there  was,  as  I 
have  suggested,  an  unwavering  confidence 
in  the  people.  He  dared  to  trust  them,  to 
trust  us.  He  allowed  his  privacy  to  be  in- 
vaded that  he  might  take  what  he  called  his 
*'  weekly  opinion  bath."  Ever  he  seems  to 
be  saying  with  Paul,  **  I  speak  as  to  wise 
men,  judge  ye  what  I  say."  In  his  first  in- 
augural address,  he  asks,  *'  Why  should  there 
not  be  patient  confidence  in  the  justice  of  the 
people  ?  Is  there  any  better  or  equal  hope 
in  the  world  ?  "  Contrast  this  with  the  word 
of  Carlyle  to  Emerson :  **  Beat  this  thing,  I 
say,  under  thy  dull  hoofs,  O  dull  public. 
Trample  it  and  tumble  it  into  all  sinks  and 
kennels.  If  thou  canst  kill  it,  kill  it  in  God's 
name.  If  thou  canst  not  kill  it,  why  then, 
thou  wilt  not."  A  letter  came  recently  to 
your  desk,  a  letter  from  a  minister,  which 
breathed  an  absolute  contempt  for  the  people 
whom  he  served.  Another  letter  came  to 
your  desk,  a  letter  from  a  minister,  which 
breathed  a  lofty  condescension  towards  his 
people.  Neither  man  can  do  permanent 
good.     Keep    your    comradeship    with    the 


Abraham  Lincoln  149 

people,  your  confidence  in  the  people.  So 
may  you  become  what  Lincoln  was,  the 
voice  of  the  people  when  speaking  their  best 
thoughts. 

Still  we  have  left  out  of  account  the  secret 
of  the  secrets  of  our  teacher's  power.  Lincoln 
had  confidence  in  himself,  he  had  confidence 
in  the  people,  but  both  these  were  dependent 
upon  his  confidence  in  God.  At  first  we  do 
not  see  in  him  any  great  confidence  in  God. 
There  is  more  of  the  frontier  superstition. 
He  will  not  begin  a  journey  on  Friday.  He 
dreams,  and  he  dreams  that  his  dreams  come 
true.  But  as  life  hurls  him  up  against  its 
great  problems,  up  from  superstition  rises 
trust.  He  lifts  **  lame  hands  of  faith  "  and  is 
caught  by  the  strong  hand  of  God.  Lincoln's 
creed  is  not  long,  but  it  is  the  creed  of  his 
life :  "  I  believe  in  a  living  God."  One  is 
reminded  of  Beecher's  word  :  "  I  have  heard 
men  pray  *  O  God  of  Abraham,  O  God 
of  Isaac,  O  God  of  Jacob,  O  God  of  Zion,' 
but  I  never  heard  men  pray  '  O  God  of 
Brooklyn,  O  God  of  America ! '  Why  do  you 
not  pray  in  the  name  of  your  father,  in  the 
name  of  your  mother,  in  the  name  of  your 
town?" 

Further,  would  Lincoln  say  :  "  I  believe  in 
a  God  who  hates  the  wrong  and  loves  the 
right."     Significant  to  us  preachers,  all,  are 


150  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

his  words  to  a  clergyman  who  expressed  the 
hope  that  the  Lord  was  on  our  side.  **  I  am 
not  at  all  concerned  about  that,  for  I  know 
that  the  Lord  is  always  on  the  side  of  the 
right,  but  it  is  my  constant  anxiety  and  prayer 
that  I  and  this  nation  should  be  on  the  Lord's 
side.'* 

"  Swiftly  the  politic  goes :  Is  it  dark  ?     He 
borrows  a  lantern. 
Slowly,  the  statesman,  and  sure,  guiding  his 
feet  by  the  stars." 

Again  he  would  say  :  "  I  believe  in  a  God 
who  answers  prayer."  Lincoln  calls  upon 
his  people  again  and  again  to  join  him  in  pe- 
tition. He  is  deeply  grateful  to  know  that 
they  are  praying  for  him.  He  says  of  him- 
self, **  I  have  often  been  driven  to  my  knees 
by  the  overwhelming  conviction  that  I  had 
nowhere  else  to  go.  My  own  wisdom  and 
the  wisdom  of  all  about  me  seemed  insufficient 
for  the  day." 

Another  word  of  his  creed  is  this :  **  I  be- 
lieve in  a  God  who  is  a  loving  heavenly 
Father."  I  know  that  the  letter  is  more 
familiar  to  you  than  to  me :  but  I  should 
wrong  you  if  I  did  not  read  it  to  you  once 
more ;  a  letter  whose  almost  unmatched 
English  but  expresses  the  perfectness  of  his 
trust  in  our  Father, 


Abraham  Lincoln  15 1 

Executive  Mansion^ 
Washingto7iy  Nov,  21^  1864. 
To  Mrs.  Bixby, 
Boston,  Mass. 

Dear  Madam : — I  have  been  shown 
in  the  files  of  the  War  Department  a  state- 
ment of  the  Adjutant  General  of  Massachu- 
setts that  you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons  who 
have  died  gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle.  I 
feel  how  weak  and  fruidess  must  be  any 
word  of  mine  which  should  attempt  to 
beguile  you  from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so  over- 
whelming. But  I  cannot  refrain  from  tender- 
ing you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found 
in  the  thanks  of  the  republic  they  died 
to  save.  I  pray  that  our  heavenly  Father 
may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your  bereave- 
ment, and  leave  you  only  the  cherished  mem- 
ory of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  solemn 
pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have  laid  so 
costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 
Yours  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

A.  Lincoln. 

Till  his  little  boy  died,  he  seems  never  to 
have  given  much  hopeful  thought  to  im- 
mortality ;  but  then  through  the  guidance  of 
a  friend,  he  was  led  to  add  one  more  word  to 
his  creed  :  **  I  believe  in  the  life  everlasting." 
In  his  creed  is  no  word  which  bespeaks  the 
necessity  of  uniting  with  the  visible  church. 
Our  preachers  had  not  yet  learned  to  strike 
for  the  central  ideas,  the  naked  issues.     But 


152  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

through  all  his  life  he  was  accustomed  to 
attend  church.  Always  he  kept  in  close 
touch  with  the  churches.  Earnestly  he 
sought  their  cooperation.  Again  and  again 
he  thanked  them  for  the  gifts  of  love  and  of 
life  which  they  had  ofTered  to  the  country. 
I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  were  he 
alive  to-day  he  would  be  found  among  those 
bound  formally  as  well  as  vitally  to  the 
Christian  Church. 

But  I  think  that  at  the  last  our  teacher 
would  lay  his  great  friendly  hand  upon  the 
shoulder  of  each  one  of  us,  his  pupils,  and 
would  say,  **  One  thing,  one  thing  is  needful. 
Have  faith  in  God." 

It  is  true  that  Lincoln's  faith  did  not  make 
him  the  radiant  Christian  of  whom  we  dream. 
A  writer  speaks  of "  that  abiding  melancholy, 
that  painful  sense  of  the  incompleteness  of 
life  which  had  been  his  mother's  dowry." 
In  his  last  ride  with  his  wife  he  said,  **  We 
must  both  try  to  be  more  cheerful  in  the 
future.  Between  the  war  and  the  loss  of  our 
darling  boy,  we  have  been  very  miserable." 
But  after  all,  he  was  one 

*'  Who  never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 
Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted, 

wrong  would  triumph, 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  bettei^ 
sleep  to  wake." 


Abraham  Lincoln  153 

You  remember  the  story  that  Dr.  A.  J. 
Lyman  tells  us  of  Beecher.  The  t\Vo  were 
coming  from  some  scene  of  funeral  solemnity. 
"  Well,  Lyman,"  said  Beecher,  **  I  suppose 
they  will  try  to  take  me  out  to  Greenwood 
some  day,  but  God  knows  I  shan't  stay 
there."  "  Where  shall  we  look  for  you  then, 
Mr.  Beecher?"  "Somewhere  in  the  midst 
of  things  fighting  for  my  country."  So  I 
love  to  think  of  him  who  has  been  our 
teacher,  as  somewhere  in  the  pidst  of  things, 
still  fighting  for  his  country,  and  teaching  us 
to  fight  the  better,  with  persuasive  words 
chosen  from  the  armoury  of  the  common 
speech,  welded  with  exceeding  care  into 
weapons  directed  straight  to  the  hearts,  the 
wills  of  men.  I  think  of  him  as  teaching  us 
rather  to  ally  ourselves  with  the  cause  of  the 
world-wide  civilization  of  brotherly  men,  to 
confide  anew  in  our  noblest  selves,  in  our 
fellow  men,  in  our  fathers'  God,  in  our  own 
God.  More  willingly  I  think  of  that  incident 
which  occurred  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Lin- 
coln was  passing  through  Richmond.  An 
old  coloured  mammy  held  high  in  air  a 
little  sick  white  child  :  "  Look  at  de  saviour, 
honey  ;  touch  the  hem  of  his  garment,  honey, 
and  yuh  pain  will  be  done  gone."  I  think 
of  Lincoln  as  our  nation's  saviour,  through 
whose  healing  virtue  a  nation's  agony  was 


'l54  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

assuaged,  a  nation's  saviour,  who  would 
teach  each  of  us  in  his  own  place  to  be  in 
some  sense  a  saviour  of  mankind. 

"  Admire  heroes  if  thou  wilt,"  says  one, 
"but  only  admire  and  thou  remainest  a 
slave.  Learn  their  secret,  to  commit  thyself 
to  God,  and  to  obey  Him,  and  thou  shalt 
become  a  hero  too." 


V 
The  Preacher  and  His  Master 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MASTER 

THE  Master  looks  forward  to  the  day 
of  universal  empire,  to  the  time  when 
His  personality  shall  dominate  hu- 
man life.  The  words  which  the  fourth  Gos- 
pel puts  into  His  lips  express  the  certain 
conviction  of  His  heart:  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  my- 
self." He  says  to  a  little  group  of  fishermen, 
*'  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  ye  are  the  light 
of  THE  WORLD."  Jesus  expects  His  king- 
dom to  be  not  only  universal  but  eternal. 
Though  the  world  empires  become  as  the 
chaff  of  the  summer  threshing  floor,  His 
kingdom  shall  be  an  everlasting  kingdom, 
and  His  dominion,  one  that  shall  not  pass 
away. 

And  yet — the  fact  would  strike  us  as  amaz- 
ing if  it  were  not  a  commonplace  of  our 
religion, — Jesus  expects  to  win  this  empire, 
universal  and  eternal,  by  an  appeal  to  men. 
From  the  wilderness  to  Golgotha,  Jesus 
steadfastly  refuses  to  use  force  in  the  ex- 
tension and  establishment  of  His  kingdom. 
He  will   hypnotize   no   man,  He  will  break 

157 


J  58  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

down  no  man's  doors.  **  Behold  I  stand  at 
the  door  and  knock."  Nor  will  He  use 
the  men  and  the  means  of  Caesar.  The  apol- 
ogists for  war  have  reminded  us  of  Jesus' 
cleansing  of  the  temple  as  an  instance  of  His 
use  of  force ;  but  surely  the  whip  of  small 
cords  and  the  overturning  of  the  money 
changers'  tables  were  but  the  symbols  of 
that  zeal  for  Jehovah's  house  which  con- 
sumed His  spirit.  He  does  say,  **T  came 
not  to  bring  peace  but  a  sword."  But  it 
is  the  exegesis  of  an  insane  asylum  which 
would  at  this  place  put  a  literal  sword  into 
the  hand  of  the  follower  of  Jesus.  The  sword 
is  the  symbol  of  division.  If  a  literal  sword 
should  by  any  possibility  be  intended,  it  is 
fairly  clear  that  the  sword  would  be  wielded 
not  by  Jesus'  friends  but  by  His  foes.  His 
friends  are  not  to  conquer  by  murder.  They 
are  to  conquer  by  martyrdom.  At  the  last 
supper,  we  hear  the  disciples  strenuously  dis- 
cussing material  preparedness  :  **  Lord,  here 
are  two  swords."  Two  swords,  forsooth,  to 
defend  thirteen  men  I  "  It  is  enough,"  said 
Jesus.  "  I  have  been  with  you  so  long,  but 
still  you  do  not  understand  me."  *'  Let  him 
sell  his  cloak  and  buy  a  sword  ":  what  does 
that  mean  ?  **  Thus  far  you  have  been  sheep, 
following  me,  the  good  shepherd.  Thus  far 
you    have   been   children,  following  me,  as 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       159 

Friend.  Now  I  am  to  leave  you.  Now  you 
are  to  have  another  temper,  that  of  the  sol- 
dier, who  girds  his  sword  upon  his  thigh  ;  you 
are  to  march  out  with  the  weapons  of  grace 
and  truth  to  meet  and  master  the  world." 
When  in  the  Garden  poor  Peter,  ill  prac- 
ticed with  the  sword,  cuts  ofi  the  ear  rather 
than  the  head  of  the  servant  of  the  high 
priest,  what  does  Jesus  say  ?  **  Put  up  again 
thy  sword  into  its  place,  for  all  they  that 
take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword." 

Is  not  that  a  suggestive  story  told  by  Sil- 
vester Home  ?  A  little  boy  had  received  as 
a  Christmas  present  a  toy  sword,  with  which 
throughout  the  day  he  killed  great  numbers 
of  imaginary  soldiers.  Towards  evening,  his 
mother  began  to  speak  quietly  to  him  of  the 
meaning  of  the  coming  of  Jesus,  spoke  of 
the  life  of  love  and  tenderness  and  sacrifice, 
until  at  last  the  little  face  grew  serious  and 
thoughtful,  and  the  boy  said,  *'  Mother,  I 
think  I  will  hide  my  sword.  I  shouldn't  like 
Jesus  to  see  it." 

A  Christian  nation  can  get  no  aid  or  com- 
fort from  Jesus,  as  she  goes  to  war,  unless 
she  is  able  to  convince  herself  that  her  war  is 
a  corollary  in  action  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
in  which  He  summarizes  the  law  and  the 
prophets :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 


i6o  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

.self."  No  nation  which  claims  to  be  Christian 
can  go  to  war,  unless  her  citizens  are  able 
honestly  to  declare  before  the  world  in  the 
presence  of  God,  "We  love  the  Lord  our 
God,  we  love  our  neighbour  nation  as  our- 
selves ;  therefore  we  go  against  our  neigh- 
bour nation  with  aeroplanes  and  superdread- 
naughts  and  submarines,  and  infinite  muni- 
tions and  asphyxiating  gases.  Our  guns 
are  expressions  in  steel  of  the  grace  and 
truth  which  we  as  followers  of  Jesus  are 
alone  permitted  to  use."  Does  that  mean 
that  we  can  never  go  to  war  ?  I  do  not  say 
that,  but  I  do  say  that  any  honest  obedience 
to  the  word  of  Jesus  would  have  made  im- 
possible most  of  the  wars  of  the  world,  with 
*' their  mud  and  blood  and  blasphemy." 
No  Christian  nation  could  possibly  make  her 
own  the  slogan,  "  Remember  the  Maine." 
Had  we  been  a  Christian  nation,  our  only 
conceivable  battle  cry  in  Cuba  would  have 
been,  "  Rescue  the  Perishing." 

As  men  then  who  would  preach  Christ,  let 
us  ask  ourselves :  What  is  the  appeal  of 
Jesus  ?  That  is :  To  what  motives  does 
Jesus  appeal?  Negatively  we  may  say, 
Jesus  does  not  appeal  to  the  very  natural  de- 
sire of  men  for  the  sensational,  the  spectacu- 
lar. He  will  not  win  men  by  the  asceticism 
of  the  Baptist.     He  will  walk  and  talk  and 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       l6l 

eat  and  drink  with  men,  a  friendly  man. 
He  will  win  no  man  by  the  duplication  of  the 
mysteries  of  Eleusis.  "  Come  and  See,  Come 
and  See."  His  very  miracles,  which  were 
but  the  inevitable  outflow  of  the  compassion 
and  power  of  His  personality,  brought  to 
Him  a  notoriety  which  embarrassed  and  ham- 
pered His  real  work.  The  multitudes  would 
have  followed  with  a  glad  heart  a  Messiah 
who  should  suddenly  drop  from  the  pinnacle 
of  the  temple  into  the  temple  court.  De- 
liberately He  rejects  the  role  of  the  wonder- 
monger.  **  No  sign  shall  be  given  to  this 
generation,  but  the  sign  of  Jonah."  The 
sign  seekers  belong  to  a  prolific  race,  but 
Jesus  to-day  as  yesterday  is  singularly  unre- 
sponsive to  their  demands.  "  He  shall  not 
cry  nor  lift  up  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard 
in  the  street."  He  will  come  into  the  lives 
of  men  as  the  night  mist  comes  upon  the 
grass,  as  the  spring  time  comes  upon  the 
world. 

Again  Jesus  does  not  appeal  to  the  very 
natural  desire  of  men  for  a  present  paradise 
of  sensuous  blessedness  or  material  well-be- 
ing. He  is  no  Demas  luring  earth's  pilgrims 
to  his  silver  mine.  He  has  no  sympathy 
with  that  ancient,  modern  code  of  ethics 
which  declares  that  a  man  must  live,  which 
proclaims  that  it  is  better  for  a  man  to  steal 


l62  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

than  to  starve.  "  If  any  man  would  come 
after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up 
his  cross  daily  and  follow  me,"  and  starve  if 
the  need  come,  yes,  and  let  all  his  family 
starve,  if  the  need  come.  **  The  time  is  at 
hand  when  he  that  killeth  you  will  think  that 
he  doeth  God  service."  One  of  His  startling 
parables  pictures  to  us  a  certain  rich  man 
who  had  won  his  paradise  of  sensuous  bless- 
edness and  went  to  sleep,  who  woke  to  find 
himself  a  fool.  "  Come  to  our  church.  We 
have  the  finest  organ,  the  most  delicious 
music,  the  most  elegant  and  eloquent  preacher 
in  town.  Come,  be  a  citizen  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Haven't  you  noticed  that  the  ablest, 
most  prominent,  most  successful  business 
men  in  our  town  are  Christians  ?  Be  good 
and  you  will  be  a  welcome  guest  at  the  bank. 
Haven't  you  observed  that  the  captains  of 
our  football  teams  for  seven  years  have  all 
been  Christians  ?  "  I  miss  such  words  from 
the  appeal  of  Jesus. 

Nor  does  Jesus  appeal  to  any  narrowing 
self-centered  desire  to  escape  from  a  future 
hell  and  to  win  a  paradise  of  spiritual  bless- 
edness or  immaterial  well-being.  Jesus  did 
regard  the  life  here  and  the  life  hereafter  as 
of  one  piece.  We  see  a  freshman  going 
wrong,  and  we  say  to  him,  **  My  dear  fellow, 
see  where  you  are  going.     You  are  losing, 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       163 

losing,  losing  until  at  last  YOU  will  be  lost." 
Jesus  bade  men  look  whither  they  were 
going,  nor  could  He  speak  as  a  teacher  who 
believed  that  the  path  ended  in  the  blind 
alley  of  the  grave.  Jesus  used  the  religious 
terminology  of  His  people,  its  words  speaking 
of  rewards  and  punishments  ;  but  the  holi- 
ness motivated  by  a  selfish  fear  of  hell,  or  by  a 
selfish  desire  for  heaven  would  be  unholy,  it 
would  be  smirched.  Such  holiness  has  no 
heritage  in  the  heaven  of  Jesus  ;  it  is  the  pos- 
session of  the  man  who,  as  one  says,  *'  put- 
ters around  in  his  own  petty  self-made  hell.'* 
In  St.  Louis  a  while  ago  I  saw  a  sign  painted 
on  the  windows  of  a  mission,  "  Holiness  or 
Hell."  In  Ashtabula  I  saw  the  announce- 
ment of  a  sermon,  "  Eternity,  Where  ? " 
There  is  a  way  of  preaching  heaven  and  hell, 
which  leads  one  to  sympathize  with  the 
woman  of  long  ago  who  went  through  the 
streets  of  Alexandria,  with  a  torch  in  one 
hand  and  a  pitcher  of  water  in  the  other,  and 
who  cried,  **  I  would  burn  up  heaven  with 
this  torch,  and  extinguish  hell  with  this 
water,  that  man  might  love  God  for  Himself 
alone." 

At  the  very  outset  Jesus  would  seem  to 
ignore  those  motives  by  which  alone  He 
might  hope  successfully  to  appeal  to  men. 
Indeed  the  crowds  do  turn  from  Him.     The 


164  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

soldiers  adorn  Him  with  an  old  purple  robe. 
Pilate  writes  in  the  languages  of  the  world 
the  inscription  for  the  cross :  **  This  is  the 
king  of  the  Jews,"  and  a  roar  of  laughter  in 
the  praetorium  follows  this  sharp  sally  of 
Roman  wit. 

To  what  motives  does  Jesus  appeal  ?  Pos- 
itively, Jesus  appeals  to  the  universal  desire 
of  men  for  the  knowledge  of  God,  for  friend- 
ship with  God.  To  know  God,  to  know  God  : 
this  has  been  the  desire  of  the  nations  and  of 
the  ages.  "  Religion,"  says  Fairbairn,  "  is  so 
essential  to  man  that  he  cannot  escape  from  it. 
It  besets  him,  penetrates  him,  holds  him  even 
against  his  will."  A  German  critic  has  re- 
marked, "  Religion  is  the  most  pernicious 
malady  of  humanity."  It  is  a  persistent  di- 
vine disease  of  men.  Now  and  then  you  do 
come  across  one  of  those  farmers  of  Thoreau 
who  would  carry  their  God  to  market  if  they 
could  get  anything  for  Him.  Now  and  then 
you  come  across  one  of  those  monstrous 
fishers  of  men  and  of  nations  who  sacrifice 
unto  their  own  nets,  and  burn  incense  unto 
their  own  drags.  Once  in  a  while  you  meet 
with  one  of  those  psychologists  who  "  cannot 
persuade  themselves  that  divine  personal  be- 
ings, be  they  primitive  gods  or  the  Christian 
Father,   have    more   than  a  subjective  ex- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       165 

istence."  Occasionally  you  see  men  who  go 
about  the  world  proclaiming  how  little  they 
believe,  as  if  somehow  their  infidelity  lifted 
them  to  summits  of  thought  and  wisdom 
above  those  on  which  walked  Isaiah  and 
Paul  and  Jesus.  But  one  always  feels  that 
such  men  have  never  tasted  life,  or  else  are 
deceiving  their  own  souls.  They  speak  more 
truly  who  say  with  Maeterlinck,  "  It  is  only 
by  the  communications  we  have  with  the 
Infinite  that  we  are  to  be  distinguished  from 
each  other."  Walt  Whitman  speaks  for  the 
race  when  he  uses  those  words  which  we  all 
know  and  love  : 

"  A  noiseless  patient  spider 

I  marked,  where  on  a  little  promontory  it 
stood  isolated, 

Marked  how  to  explore  the  vacant  vast  sur- 
rounding, 

It  launched  forth  filament,  filament,  filament, 
out  of  itself, 

Ever  unreeling  them,  ever  tirelessly  speeding 
them. 

«*  And  you,  O  my  soul,  where  you  stand, 

Surrounded,  detached,  in  measureless  oceans 
of  space. 

Ceaselessly  musing,  venturing,  throwing,  seek- 
ing the  spheres  to  connect  them 

Till  the  bridge  you  will  need  be  formed,  till  the 
ductile  anchor  hold. 

Till  the  gossamer  thread  you  fling  catch  some- 
where, O  my  soul," 


l66  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

To  know  God  I  Wherever  in  all  the  world 
a  man  has  been  found  who  seemed  to  know 
anything  about  God,  that  man  has  been 
hated,  it  may  be,  loved,  it  may  be :  that  man 
has  always  been  followed. 

Now  the  fundamental  postulate  of  Christi- 
anity— perhaps  the  words  are  another's — is 
this,  that  God  can  be  known  ;  and  the  second 
postulate  of  Christianity  I  take  to  be  this, 
that  God  can  be  known  as  a  friend.  In  all 
lands  and  times,  friendship  with  deity  has 
been  regarded  as  beatitude.  Does  God  see 
and  know  and  care  for  us  ?  '*  Come  unto 
me,"  says  Jesus,  "and  I  will  make  you  to 
know  God.  I  will  make  you  to  know  God 
as  your  friend,  as  your  Father.  He  is  your 
Father.  You  may  become  in  a  new  sense  his 
Child.  Come  unto  me :  I  am  the  way,  I  am 
the  way  from  the  meanest  man,  the  most  ig- 
norant man,  the  most  degraded  man,  straight 
to  the  Father's  home  and  the  Father's  heart." 
When  the  Danish  missionaries  were  trans- 
lating the  Word,  they  came  to  the  passage 
which  reads,  "  They  shall  be  called  sons  of 
God."  The  native  amanuensis  laid  down 
his  pen  :  "  Missionary,  this  is  too  much.  Let 
me  write  it :  *  They  shall  be  permitted  to  kiss 
His  feet.'  "  Nay,  they  shall  be  called  sons  of 
God.  And  I  say  to  you  that  wherever  you 
can  find  an  honest  man  who  has  dug  his  way 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       167 

down  the  least  distance  beneath  the  surface 
of  life,  there  you  find  a  man  who  answers 
back,  "  Master,  canst  Thou  do  it  ?  Canst 
Thou  make  me  to  know  God  as  my  friend, 
as  my  Father  ?  Then  Thou  wilt  draw  me  to 
Thee,  and  hold  me  fast  to  Thee  forever." 

And  this  leads  me  to  speak  of  a  second 
appeal  of  our  Master.  Jesus  appeals  to  the 
universal  desire  of  men  for  a  man's  life.  Even 
where  the  great  religious  teachers  have  taught 
that  the  goal  of  life  is  a  ceaseless  dreamless 
sleep,  the  human  heart  has  rebelled,  and  in- 
sisted that  it  is  life,  not  death,  it  is  life  and 
fuller  that  we  want.  But  a  man's  life !  What 
does  that  mean  ?  Think  it  through.  A  man's 
life.  What  is  needful  that  a  man  should  live 
a  man's  life  ?  That  a  man  may  live  a  man's  life, 
the  forces  which  now  tend  to  impoverish  life 
must  themselves  positively  enrich  life.  What 
forces  tend  to  impoverish  life?  "Well,"  one 
will  say,  '*  sickness,  poverty  itself,  the  ebb  and 
flow,  the  ups  and  downs  of  circumstance." 
You  remember  the  word  of  Rosebury  speak- 
ing of  Napoleon  on  St.  Helena,  **For  six 
years  he  tasted  the  bitterness  of  slow,  re- 
morseful, desolate  death."  The  tragedy  is 
not  less  real,  when  it  is  less  conspicuous. 
Often  in  the  great  city,  one  sees  a  man 
who  has  given  himself  body  and  soul  to  a 
certain    business.     The    business    has   been 


l68  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

undermined  by  the  rapid  economic  changes 
of  the  years.  And  the  man's  hands  are 
empty,  his  heart  is  shrivelled.  He  is  poor. 
Then  there  is  bereavement.  Do  you  happen 
to  know  the  derivation  of  the  word  Bereave- 
ment ?  I  have  been  told  that  it  roots  in  an 
Anglo-Saxon  word  which  means  to  steal,  to 
plunder,  to  rob.  When  our  friends  go  from 
us  we  say  that  we  are  bereaved,  literally, 
plundered,  robbed,  despoiled.  Though  we 
may  hope  to  make  life  longer  and  safer, 
though  we  may  dare  dream  of  the  time  when 
the  inhabitant  shall  not  say,  "  I  am  sick," 
yet  no  man  can  claim  exemption  from  life's 
changes  ;  but  if  a  man  is  to  live  a  MAN'S  life, 
these  changes  which  so  often  impoverish 
must  actually  enrich  life. 

Perhaps  more  impoverishing  is  the  deadly 
and  meaningless  monotony  of  life.  A  letter 
came  the  other  day  to  a  preacher  friend  of 
mine  :  "  At  the  next  morning  service,  will 
you  have  a  special  message  for  those  whose 
vision  is  dimming  and  whose  hold  on  God  is 
slipping  under  the  pressure  not  of  great  be- 
reavement, but  of  steadily  grinding  care  and 
responsibility  ?  Perhaps  you  have  met  such 
a  situation.  At  all  events  you  seem  to  have 
learned  the  secret  of  a  vital  steadying  rela- 
tionship with  God.  You  have  already  helped 
me,  and  I  beg  your  further  help  before  every- 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       169 

thing  goes,  and  the  bitterness  already  creep- 
ing in  overmasters  me.  I  despise  anonymous 
letters,  but  remain,  A  troubled  parishioner." 
We  try  at  times  to  amuse  ourselves  with 
fool's  gold,  to  avoid  the  meaningless  mon- 
otony by  an  equally  meaningless  **  accelera- 
tion." We  know  in  our  hearts  that  we  are 
not  living  a  man's  life  ;  we  are  poor. 

If  a  man  is  to  live  a  man's  life,  the  forces 
which  now  tend  to  destroy  life  must  them- 
selves be  destroyed.  Then  sin  must  be  killed 
out  of  a  man.  I  suspect  that  there  is  to-day 
a  decline  of  the  sense  of  sin.  A  preacher 
tells  me,  •'  In  Cleveland,  I  don't  meet  men 
who  regard  themselves  as  sinners."  But 
men  know  very  well  that  they  are  the  vic- 
tims of  the  divided  self.  At  the  desk  of  the 
city  business  man  is  a  telephone,  and  he  may 
be  called  up  by  the  Salvation  Army  or  the 
grill  room,  by  the  gambling  hell  or  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Chil- 
dren. They  may  be  on  the  wire  at  the  same 
time.  Isn't  it  true  ?  A  letter,  a  bit  of  sun- 
shine, a  fit  of  depression,  a  word  of  gossip,  and 
lo,  the  friend,  or  the  scholar,  or  the  libertine, 
or  the  pessimist  within  a  man  calls  him  up  and 
at  times  all  these  personalities  will  seem  to  be 
struggling  within  him  to  get  a  hearing.  We 
do  not  speak  much  of  sin,  we  call  it  by  all 
sorts  of  pretty  names,  but  still  there  are  hosts 


lyo  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

of  men  who  share  the  longing  of  Kipling's 
pilgrim,  who  came  to  the  curator  of  the 
museum  at  Lahore  with  his  story  of  the 
River  of  the  Arrow :  "  Where  Buddha's 
arrow  fell,  there  broke  out  a  stream,  which 
presently  became  a  river,  whose  nature  by 
our  Lord's  beneficence  is  that  whoso  bathes 
in  it  washes  away  every  taint  and  speckle  of 
sin.  Where  is  that  river,  Fountain  of  Wis- 
dom, where  fell  the  arrow  ?  Surely  thou 
dost  know.  See,  I  am  an  old  man.  I  ask 
with  my  head  between  thy  feet,  O  fountain 
of  wisdom.  We  know  he  drew  the  bow. 
We  know  the  arrow  fell.  We  know  the 
stream  gushed.  Where  then  is  the  river? 
My  dream  told  me  to  find  it.  So  I  came.  I 
am  here,  but  where  is  the  river  ?  "  Where 
is  the  river  in  which  a  man  may  cleanse 
away  every  taint  and  speckle  of  sin  ?  The 
nations  do  not  know.  Mr.  Mott  says,  "  I 
have  asked  the  students  of  forty  different 
nations  to  show  me  any  power  except  Christ 
that  could  save  their  life  from  sin,  and  give 
them  strength.  Only  one  young  man  ever 
claimed  knowledge  of  such  a  power.  I  said 
to  him,  '  I  am  glad  to  meet  you.  Come  with 
me,  and  give  your  message  to  the  young 
men  of  the  world.  I  need  your  help.'  That 
same  evening  that  young  man  came  to  me 
and  said  that  he  was  a  slave  of  sin,  and  the 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       171 

power  of  which  he  spoke,  his  own  will,  had 
not  been  able  to  save  him." 

If,  in  order  that  one  may  live  a  man's  life, 
the  forces  now  tending  to  destroy  life  must  be 
destroyed,  then  death  must  be  put  to  death. 
Don't  you  think  that  death  is  a  pretty  shabby 
ending  of  a  man's  life  ?  "A  beautiful  ad- 
venture "  ?  Yes,  if  death  is  not  death.  I 
talked  a  while  ago  with  an  old  friend  of  mine. 
1  said,  **  How  tall  are  you  ?  "  "  Well,"  said 
he,  "  I  used  to  be  six  feet,  two  and  a  half.  I 
am  not  that  any  more.  I  am  not  six  feet 
any  more."  Isn't  that  pathetic  ?  So  we 
shrivel  and  shrivel  until  our  grave  clothes 
fit  us. 

**  The  phenomenon  of  consciousness  ceases 
with  the  death  of  the  cerebral  cells."  How 
lightly  we  say  over  the  words.  Think  what 
they  mean.  Do  you  recall  that  letter  of 
Huxley  to  Morley  ? 

4  Marlboro  Place,  N.  W., 

December  ^Oy  i88j. 
My  dear  Morley  : 

All  our  good  wishes  to  you  and  yours. 
The  great  thing  one  has  to  wish  for  as  time 
goes  on  is  vigour  as  long  as  life  lasts,  and 
death  as  soon  as  vigour  flags.  It  is  a  curious 
thing  that  I  find  my  dislike  of  the  thought 
of  extinction  increasing  as  I  get  older  and 
nearer  the  goal.  It  flashes  across  me  at  all 
sorts  of  times  with  a  sort  of  horror  that  in 


172  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

1900  I  shall  probably  know  no  more  of  what 
is  going  on  than  I  did  in  1800.  I  had  sooner 
be  in  hell  a  good  deal,  at  any  rate  in  one  oi 
the  upper  circles,  where  the  climate  and  com- 
pany are  not  too  trying.  I  wonder  if  you 
are  plagued  in  this  way. 

Ever  yours, 

T.  H.  H. 

In  his  book,  **  Facts  and  Comments,"  Her- 
bert Spencer  says,  "  It  seems  a  strange  and 
repugnant  conclusion  that  with  the  cessation 
of  consciousness  at  death,  there  ceases  to  be 
any  knowledge  of  having  existed."  I  grant 
that  there  are  times,  tired  times,  when  noth- 
ing seems  so  desirable  as  a  long  sleep,  but 
even  then  the  thought  of  the  extinction  of 
our  loved  ones  seems  unspeakably  horrible. 
Omar  of  course  has  an  easy  answer  to  all 
our  questionings. 

"  Would  you  be  happy?     Hearken  then  the  way. 
Heed  not  to-morrow,  heed  not  yesterday. 
The  magic  words  of  life  are  here  and  now. 
O  fools,  that  after  some  to-morrow  stray." 

That  is,  put  your  memory  to  sleep,  put 
your  hope  to  sleep,  and  then  be  happy  like 
a  dog  or  like  a  cat,  but  not  like  a  man.  If 
a  man  is  going  to  live  a  man's  life,  then 
death  must  be  put  to  death,  or  life,  as  the 
universe  itself,  is  indeed  God's  great  joke, 
rather  a  jest  perpetrated  by  some  Caliban 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       173 

of  a  god.  "  What  must  I  do  to  inherit  eter- 
nal Ufa  ?"  The  cry  of  the  rich  young  man  is 
echoed  by  every  man  worthy  the  name  of  a 
man.  The  rich  young  man  did  not  wish 
"  a  ladylike  tea-party  elysium,  where  there  is 
a  tedious  cooing  of  bliss  from  everybody.'* 
He  was  not  seeking  "  sugar  plums  "  for  him- 
self. He  was  seeking  LIFE.  He  might 
have  gone  to  the  rabbis  of  his  own  people, 
he  might  have  gone  to  the  stoics  of  Rome, 
he  might  have  gone  to  the  pundits  of  the 
East.  Their  best  philosophies  would  have 
taught  him  to  obey  an  impossible  law,  to 
endure  an  unendurable  life,  to  get  free  from 
the  wheel  of  things.  Alone,  unique,  among 
the  teachers  of  the  world,  our  Master  speaks 
to  men,  "  Come  unto  me  and  I  will  give  you 
LIFE.  I  will  give  you  the  real,  the  rich,  the 
abounding,  the  eternal  life."  And  again  I 
say,  wherever  you  can  find  an  honest  man, 
who  has  dug  down  beneath  the  surface  of 
existence,  there  you  find  a  man  who  answers 
back,  "  Master,  canst  Thou  do  it  ?  Canst 
Thou  give  me  a  man's  life  ?  Then  *  of  all 
mankind  I  cleave  to  Thee,  and  to  Thee  will 
I  cleave  alway.' " 

Again,  there  is  a  third  appeal  of  Jesus, 
which  cannot  be  logically  separated  from  the 
others.     Jesus  appeals  to  the  universal  de- 


174  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

sire  of  men  for  leadership,  a  leadership  other 
than  their  own. 

We  have  often  observed  the  longing  of 
men  for  a  king.  Far  back  in  the  days  of 
the  Judges  Israel  longed  for  a  king.  A  little 
while  ago,  one  of  the  countries  of  Europe 
was  scouring  the  continent  to  find  a  king. 
What  we  see  in  the  realm  of  politics,  we  see 
in  the  realm  of  science.  In  an  Ohio  univer- 
sity there  is  an  eminent  surgeon  whose  stu- 
dents call  him  '*  the  king,"  and  they  follow 
him  with  a  devotion  as  eager  as  was  ever  that 
of  the  soldiers  of  the  Little  Corporal.  What 
we  see  in  the  realm  of  science  we  see  in  the 
realm  of  religion.  The  devotion  of  the  Mos- 
lem to  Mohammed,  of  the  Hindu  to  Krishna, 
the  devotion  of  the  Mormon  to  Joseph  Smith, 
of  the  Christian  Scientist  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  these 
are  all  the  expressions  of  the  desire  for  a 
king.  And  this  desire  is  by  no  means  a 
maudlin  sentiment.  I  hold  it  to  be  the  king- 
liest  quality  of  men.  Your  little  woman 
whose  chief  interests  are  low  necks  and  high 
teas  thinks  she  has  no  need  of  a  king. 
But  let  her  live  a  while.  Your  great 
woman,  your  Frances  Willard,  your  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe,  needs  a  king.  Your  ordi- 
nary woman  who  for  one  half-hour  has 
looked  out  into  that  world  in  which  to-day 
breaker  boys  are  taking  in  dust  and  death 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       175 

with  the  same  breath,  that  world  in  which 
to-day  the  seamstress  sews  a  double  thread, 
a  shroud  as  well  as  a  shirt,  that  world  in 
which  little  children  are  sent  barefooted 
out  into  the  night,  while  their  fathers  shoot 
each  other  to  death  and  call  war  glorious, 
that  woman  needs  a  king.  I  was  struck  by 
the  word  of  Jane  Carlyle,  who  confessed 
that  she  had  a  devil  inside  her  which  was 
always  bidding  her  March,  March,  but  which 
burst  into  laughter  when  she  asked  where 
she  was  to  march  to. 

Your  litde  man,  a  chip  on  the  face  of  the 
waters,  thinks  he  doesn't  need  a  king.  Let 
him  live  a  little  while  and  he  will  learn  his 
need. 

*•'  Last  night  my  soul  drove  out  to  sea, 
Down  through  the  pagan  gloom, 
As  chartless  as  eternity, 
As  dangerous  as  doom. 

<*  By  blinding  gusts  of  no-god  chased. 
My  crazy  craft  plunged  on. 
I  crept  aloft  in  prayer  to  find 
The  lighthouse  of  the  dawn. 

**  No  shore,  no  star,  no  sail  ahead, 
No  lookout's  saving  song, 
Death  and  the  rest  athwart  my  bow. 
And  all  my  reckoning  wrong." 

Meanwhile  your  great  man,  your  Lincoln, 
your  Gladstone,  needs  a  king.     Your  ordi- 


176  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

nary  man  who  has  stood  for  one  half-hour 
gazing  into  that  stupendous  melting  pot  of 
God,  in  which  we  are  bidden  see  the  races 
and  the  nations  fusing  and  reforming, — he 
needs  a  king,  some  one  on  whose  throne 
steps  he  may  kneel  and  bow  obeisance,  some 
great  commander  in  whose  comradeship  he 
may  be  strong. 

Never  was  the  desire  for  leadership  so 
imperious  as  at  this  hour.  We  are  tasting 
the  ripe  fruits  of  the  industrial  development 
of  the  last  thirty  years,  and  those  fruits  taste 
of  human  blood.  We  are  tasting  the  unripe 
fruits  of  a  recent  industrial  development,  with 
its  forced  growth,  and  again  the  fruits  taste 
of  human  blood.  The  public  square  of  the 
great  city  is  lined  with  benches,  and  the 
benches  are  filled  with  drunks  and  bums, 
and  the  great  city  like  the  Roman  matron  of 
old  must  say,  "  These  are  my  jewels."  Now 
*'  ascetic  Christianity,"  says  Rauschenbusch, 
** found  the  world  evil  and  left  it.  The  times 
call  for  a  revolutionary  Christianity  that  shall 
find  the  world  evil  and  change  it."  Yes,  and 
whether  Christians  or  not,  men  want  to 
change  it.  Did  you  notice  the  remark  of 
Lyman  Abbott?  He  said,  "For  some  ten 
years  I  have  been  giving  myself  to  preach- 
ing among  collegians,  and  in  all  that  time 
I  have  never  been  asked  the  question,  What 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       177 

must  I  do  to  be  saved?  But  many  times 
have  I  been  asked,  What  must  I  do  to  save 
others  ?  "  Certain  it  is  that  the  passion  for 
saving  others  burns  white  hot  within  the 
hearts  of  manly  men  to-day. 

*'  Sometimes  with  a  rush  the  intolerable  craving 
Shivers  throughout  me  like  a  trumpet  call. 
Oh,  to  save  these,  to  perish  for  their  saving, 
Die  for  their  life,  be  offered  for  them  all." 

Yes,  but  how  to  save  these?  One  doesn't 
exactly  like  to  "run  the  hazard  of  his  life 
against  a  hen-roost."  How  by  death  to  win 
life  for  others  ?  How  to  make  a  sacrifice  not 
only  complete  but  completely  serviceable? 
You  recall  the  Chicago  saloon-keeper  who 
speaking  of  a  recent  anti-saloon  agitation 
said,  ''This  is  no  Willy-Hold-the-Baby 
proposition.  This  is  hell."  The  job  which 
faces  men  to-day  is  no  job  for  nursemaids, 
male  or  female ;  it  is  for  us  to  extinguish 
hell.  But  how?  All  about  us  are  fakirs 
with  their  patent  fire  extinguishers  telling  us 
how  to  put  out  the  fire.  The  only  trouble 
with  them  is,  they  can't  do  it.  Some  years 
ago,  Jesus  said  to  a  couple  of  fishermen, 
"  Come  ye  after  me  and  I  will  make  you 
fishers  of  men."  A  litde  later  to  a  larger 
group,  He  said,  **  Go  ye  and  make  disciples 
of  all  the  nations,  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  all 
the  days,  even  unto  the  consummation  of  the 


lyS  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

age."  And  down  through  the  years,  the 
preacher's  Master  has  been  calling  to  men, 
*'  Come  unto  me  and  I  will  be  your  leader. 
I  will  lead  you  into  a  life  of  power,  a  life 
strong  to  climb  towards  God,  a  life  strong  to 
stoop  and  bear  the  burdens  of  your  brothers, 
a  life  strong  to  sway  and  strong  to  serve  the 
world."  And  once  more  I  say,  wherever 
you  can  find  a  man  in  whom  any  manhood 
survives,  a  man  who  has  worked  his  way 
down  beneath  the  mere  surface  of  life,  there 
you  find  a  man  who  answers  back  to  Jesus, 
"  Master,  canst  Thou  do  it  ?  Canst  Thou  be 
my  leader  ?  Then  I  will  follow  Thee  *  through 
heaven  and  hell,  the  earth,  the  sea  and  the 
air.'  " 

Does  Jesus  appeal  to  these  universal  de- 
sires of  men  to  thwart  them  ?  After  the  in- 
struction of  the  centuries  it  is  but  a  truism  to 
say  that  Jesus  appeals  to  these  desires  of  men 
to  satisfy  them  with  a  sublime  fulfillment. 
Men  longing  for  the  knowledge  of  God,  for 
friendship  with  God,  have  placed  their  hands 
in  the  hand  of  Jesus  and  have  felt  the  pres- 
sure of  the  heavenly  Father's  hand.  Men 
whose  lives  have  been  one  long  struggle  for 
life  have  tasted  of  Him  the  living  bread  and 
have  never  hungered  any  more.  Through 
the  desert  of  the  years  pilgrims  have  sought 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       1 79 

and  in  Jesus  they  have  found  the  fountain  of 
living-  waters,  and  no  man  who  has  drunk  of 
that  fountain  has  ever  thirsted  any  more. 
There  has  risen  within  him  a  fountain  spring- 
ing up  unto  eternal  life.  "Jesus,"  says 
Brooks,  "  was  not  so  much  the  deed  doer  or 
the  word  sayer  ;  He  was  rather  the  life  giver." 
Such  He  has  ever  been.  Through  Him  men 
have  come  to  Hve  a  Hfe  of  such  a  character 
that  its  cessation  would  proclaim  the  world  a 
madhouse.  Men  have  come  to  Jesus  seeking 
leadership.  They  have  entered  a  sad  world, 
but  wherever  they  have  followed  Jesus  they 
have  turned  sorrow  into  joy.  They  have 
come  into  an  impure  world,  but  wherever 
they  have  placed  their  feet  in  the  footprints 
of  Jesus  there  have  grown  the  flowers  of  do- 
mestic purity.  They  have  come  into  a  cruel 
world,  a  world  which  delighted  to  see  ten 
thousand  gladiators  contend  for  life  in  the 
arena.  Wherever  they  have  followed  Jesus 
they  have  transformed  cruelty  into  mercy. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  be  in  Toronto  at  the 
dedication  of  the  glorious  pile  of  buildings 
known  as  Knox  College,  the  Presbyterian 
theological  school  connected  with  the  Uni- 
versity. As  we  sat  in  the  Gothic  chapel  and 
listened  to  words  of  faith  and  hope  and  love, 
almost  constantly  through  the  half  open  win- 
dows we  could  hear  the  sharp  commands  of 


i8o  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

sergeants  drilling  their  awkward  squads  of 
boys.  Two  hundred,  three  hundred,  four 
hundred,  they  marched  across  the  campus 
back  and  forth  hour  after  hour.  Why  ?  That 
they  might  all  too  possibly  die  in  the  wild 
war.  But  in  the  addresses,  this  thought 
was  expressed  again  and  again  :  The  peace 
which  must  at  last  close  this  war  will  be  the 
signal  for  a  greater,  madder  war,  in  which 
shall  be  involved  not  only  the  United  States 
but  the  entire  Orient,  if,  if  that  peace  is  not 
made  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of 
Jesus  Christ.  This  I  profoundly  believe.  A 
friend  of  mine  was  telling  us  of  a  picture  in 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in  New 
York.  It  represents  the  Crusaders  come  at 
last  to  the  holy  city,  the  goal  of  their  desires. 
Below  them  shine  the  domes  and  minarets  of 
Jerusalem.  Not  an  eye  is  turned  thither. 
Rather  every  eye  is  turned  towards  the  heav- 
ens, where  in  vision  is  seen  Jesus  Christ,  who 
has  led  them  all  the  way.  And  to  this  day, 
wherever  you  meet  crusaders  who  have  ac- 
tually achieved  the  rescue  of  any  quarter  of 
the  captive  city,  there  you  find  men  who  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  have  followed  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Master. 

Had  Jesus  used  the  weapons  of  physical 
conquest  He  would  never  have  conquered 
human    hearts.     Those   words   of    Chunder 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       18 1 

Sen  uttered  in  1879  still  speak  the  truth : 
**  Who  rules  India  ?  It  is  neither  diplomacy 
nor  the  bayonet  which  sways  our  hearts. 
Armies  never  won  the  heart  of  a  nation,  and 
you  cannot  deny  that  our  hearts  are  touched, 
are  won,  are  overwhelmed  by  a  higher  power, 
and  that  power  is  Christ.  Christ  rules  British 
India,  not  the  British  government.  None  but 
Jesus,  none  but  Jesus,  none,  I  say,  but  Jesus, 
ever  deserved  this  bright  diadem,  and  Jesus 
shall  have  it."  Had  Jesus  sought  the  sensa- 
tional, the  spectacular,  He  would  never  have 
appealed  to  the  wise  ;  had  He  appealed  to  the 
desire  for  ease,  He  would  never  have  appealed 
to  heroes.  Jesus  knew  what  was  in  man, 
dared  to  bide  His  time,  dared  to  appeal  to 
those  motives  which  beneath  all  that  segre- 
gates us,  colour,  race,  money,  national  an- 
tipathies, still  rule  the  hearts  of  men.  Into 
the  inner  realms  of  life,  the  preacher's  Master 
enters,  sure  that  the  day  will  come  when  He 
shall  be  acknowledged  King. 

May  I  speak  then  to  the  Master's  preach- 
ers ?  Shall  not  the  appeal  of  Jesus  come  to 
us  with  resistless  compulsion  ?  May  we  not 
count  ourselves  among  those  for  whom  Cuth- 
bert  Hall  speaks  as  he  addresses  the  men  of 
the  East :  *'  Educated  men  of  the  West  hold 
the  faith  of  Christ  not  as  a  fragile  treasure  to 


1 82  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

be  guarded  against  the  rough  onslaughts  of 
unbelief,  but  as  a  mighty  impregnable  fortress 
against  which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail "  ? 

And  the  Master's  preacher  has  no  other 
task  than  this,  to  voice  the  appeal  of  Jesus, 
Woe  to  us  if  we  are  guilty  of  the  charge  made 
against  us  that  we  are  **  sellers  of  rhetoric." 
Ours  to  proclaim  a  living  God,  whom  men 
may  love,  an  eternal  life  which  men  may  live, 
a  leader  whom  men  may  trust,  a  living  way 
if  you  please,  which  men  may  follow  to  the 
journey's  end. 

How  then  shall  we  preachers  voice  the 
appeal  of  Jesus  ?  By  our  words.  This  of 
course.  The  thought  that  we  are  simply 
voicing  the  appeal  of  Jesus  will  keep  us  from 
all  scolding,  from  all  pulpit  smartnesses,  from 
all  assumption,  from  all  dogmatism.  A  min- 
ister may  say  almost  anything  to  his  people 
if  they  know  that  his  words  are  the  pleading 
of  a  great  Christlike  love. 

Again  we  shall  voice  the  appeal  of  Jesus, 
like  Jesus  Himself,  by  our  works.  Gesta 
Christi,  the  deeds  of  Christ,  speak  a  language 
which  the  men  of  every  tongue  understand. 
As  we  listen  to  a  great  preacher,  we  think, 
**  Oh,  if  we  only  had  his  voice,  his  piercing 
glance,  his  brains,  his  immense  and  available 
learning,   which  he   wears  as  lightly  as  a 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       183 

flower."  And  then  we  think  of  that  letter  of 
Fitzgerald :  ''  Oh,  this  wonderful,  wonderful 
world,  and  we  who  stand  in  the  middle  of  it 
are  in  a  maze,  except  poor  Mathews  of  Bed- 
ford, who  fixes  his  eyes  upon  a  wooden  Cross 
and  has  no  misgiving  whatsoever.  When  I 
was  at  his  chapel  on  Good  Friday,  he  called 
at  the  end  of  his  grand  sermon  on  some  of 
the  people  to  say  merely  this,  that  they  be- 
lieved Christ  had  redeemed  them ;  and  first 
one  got  up,  and  in  sobs  declared  that  she 
believed  it ;  and  then  another,  and  then  an- 
other— I  was  quite  overset — all  poor  people : 
how  much  richer  than  all  who  fill  London 
churches  !  "  You  remember  Jehovah's  word 
to  Ezekiel,  "  Thou  art  unto  them  as  a  very 
lovely  song  of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice, 
and  can  play  well  on  an  instrument,  for  they 
hear  thy  words,  but  they  do  them  not." 
How  often  men  listen  to  the  eloquent 
preacher  as  to  a  skilled  musician  who  fills 
an  hour  with  a  pleasing  song,  but  stirs  no 
soul  to  action.  On  the  other  hand  there  are 
men  who  like  Moses  were  neither  eloquent 
before  Jehovah  spake  to  them,  nor  after  the 
vision  of  Jehovah,  but  by  their  deeds  have 
spoken  the  language  of  compelling  appeal. 

We  think,  **  Oh,  if  we  could  only  be 
great  city  preachers."  And  then  we  get 
such   a  word  as  this :   **  In   Boston  it  was 


184  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

recently  revealed  that  about  eighty  per  cent, 
of  the  pastors  and  Christian  workers  of  the 
four  leading  denominations  of  the  city  were 
born  and  reared  in  the  country."  What 
does  that  mean?  For  one  thing  it  means 
this  :  that  in  quiet  country  places  disciples  of 
Jesus  have  stood  beside  the  cross,  preaching 
with  the  words  of  the  pulpit,  yes,  but  rather 
with  the  more  effective  speech  of  the  day's 
work,  so  that  lads  going  up  to  college  and 
down  to  the  city  have  not  forgotten,  but 
have  begun  in  their  turn  to  voice  the  appeal 
of  Jesus. 

I  knew  two  preachers.  One  of  them  had 
rare  felicity  of  utterance,  an  extraordinary  skill 
in  exegesis.  Sunday  after  Sunday  he  voiced 
the  appeal  of  Jesus,  but  day  after  day  as  he 
walked  the  streets  in  silence  he  preached  a 
sermon  that  shouted  down  the  message  of 
his  Master.  The  other  man  had  no  felicity 
of  utterance,  no  skill  in  exegesis.  He  had  a 
singular  inability  to  get  his  message,  as  our 
boys  say,  over  the  desk.  But  day  by  day  as 
he  walked  the  streets,  women  pointed  him 
out  to  their  husbands,  **  There  is  a  holy  man 
of  God,  who  passeth  by  us  continually." 
Little  children  loved  to  meet  him ;  and  the 
simple  fact  is  this,  that  the  daily  sermon  of 
that  preacher's  life  transfigured  the  sermon 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  on  the  Sabbath  men 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       185 

listened  to  him  as  once  in  Antioch  or  Con- 
stantinople men  listened  to  John  of  the 
Golden  Mouth. 

A  certain  woman  broke  an  alabaster  box, 
and  poured  the  precious  ointment  upon  the 
feet  of  Christ.  Nineteen  hundred  years  have 
passed,  and  the  fragrance  of  that  ointment 
has  filled  every  apartment  in  the  vast  house 
which  shelters  Christendom.  Her  quiet  deed 
has  preached  a  sermon  to  the  generations. 
The  hands  which  bear  the  stigmata  have 
indeed  singular  power  to  call  men  to  "  the 
Lord  of  Calvary." 

But  men  have  followed  Jesus  not  alone  for 
what  He  said  and  did,  but  for  what  He  was. 
And  He  is  the  first  born  among  many  breth- 
ren. As  we  preachers,  brethren  of  the  Master, 
seek  to  voice  His  appeal,  we  shall  fulfill  our 
calling  most  effectively  by  the  silent  speech  of 
character.  When  my  friend  Harlan  P.  Beach 
was  walking  along  a  street  in  China,  he 
chanced  to  overhear  one  Chinese  speak  to  a 
friend,  '*  There  goes  Jesus."  It  has  been  said 
that  men  came  ostensibly  to  hear  Rutherford 
but  really  to  see  Jesus.  I  asked  a  friend  re- 
garding a  certain  minister  :  **  Do  you  count 
him  a  strong  man  ?  "  **  If  you  mean  a  bright 
man,  yes  :  if  you  mean  a  spiritual  man,  no." 
In  some  real  sense  we  must  eat  the  flesh  and 
drink  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  Man.     In  some 


i86  The  Preacher^s  Ideals  and  Inspirations 

real  fashion  the  life  of  Christ  must  enter  ours, 
so  that  to  us  to  live  shall  be  Christ. 

**  Ideas,"  says  George  EHot,  '*  are  often 
poor  ghosts.  Our  sun-filled  eyes  cannot  dis- 
cern them — they  pass  athwart  us  in  their 
vapour,  and  cannot  make  themselves  felt 
But  sometimes  they  are  made  flesh,  they 
breathe  upon  us  with  warm  breath,  they 
touch  us  with  soft  responsive  hands,  they 
look  at  us  with  sad  sincere  eyes,  and  speak 
to  us  in  appealing  tones  ;  they  are  clothed  in 
a  living  human  soul,  with  all  its  conflicts,  its 
faith  and  its  love.  Then  their  presence  is  a 
power,  then  they  shake  us  like  a  passion, 
and  we  are  drawn  after  them  with  gentle 
compulsion,  as  flame  is  drawn  to  flame."  As 
the  ideas  of  Jesus  are  clothed  in  our  human 
souls,  may  we  gain  the  ultimate  power  of 
the  preacher,  a  power  which  can  never  be 
monopolized  by  the  preachers  whom  the  world 
calls  wise  and  mighty  and  noble. 

Shall  our  Master's  appeal,  as  we  give  it,  be 
effective  ?  Grant  that  we  may  not  succeed. 
If  by  the  language  of  our  words,  our  deeds, 
our  characters,  we  have  voiced  that  appeal, 
we  can  say  with  Paul,  **  I  am  pure  from  the 
blood  of  all  men.  If  any  man  commits  soul 
murder  or  soul  suicide,  I  am  not  responsible." 
Shall  the  appeal  be  effective  ?  Not  with  every 
man ;  any  more  than  in  the  days  when  Jesus 


The  Preacher  and  His  Master       187 

lived  with  Judas,  loved  him,  lost  him.  Nor 
yet  may  the  appeal  of  Jesus  be  successful  in 
every  company  known  as  a  church  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  word  may  be  true,  "  The  church 
must  be  a  much  smaller  thing  before  it  can 
be  a  bigger." 

But  the  world  is  going  Jesus*  way.  Men 
have  not  believed  it.  They  have  trusted  the 
minutes  against  the  centuries ;  but  the  world 
is  going  Jesus*  way,  and  the  man  who  is 
against  Jesus  has  the  universe  against  him. 
The  man  who  is  on  the  side  of  Jesus,  and  with 
limitless  confidence  voices  His  appeal  to  men, 
that  man  may  seem  to  walk  a  very  lonely 
way  :  he  is  in  the  current  of  events,  strong  in 
their  strength  ;  the  universe  is  on  his  side. 

So  I  would  close  these  studies,  using  the 
words  which  Jones  of  Haverford  taught  me, 
words  with  which  we  may  address  those  who 
discount  our  ideals : 

"  Dreamers  of  dreams  ?     We  take  the  taunt  with 

gladness. 
Knowing  that  God  beyond  the  years  you  see 
Hath  wrought  the  dreams  that  count  with  you 

for  madness 
Into  the  substance  of  the  life  to  be." 

The  preacher's  Master  will  not  permit  the 
preacher's  hope  to  be  put  to  shame. 

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ANNUAL  S.  S.  LESSON  HELPS 

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combination  of  the  very  qualities  which  captivate.  ^  His 
thoughts  are  always  expressed  in  the  simplest  possible  diction, 
so  that  their  crystalline  clearness  makes  them  at  once  appre- 
hended."— Christian  Evangelist, 

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Date  Due 


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